Troubled Days: Bronze
by FireFoxDriver
Summary: Wendy dreamed of becoming a pro fighter. She grew up thinking that she was a prodigy, due to many awards that she never had to work for. Although what she didn't know is that all of her victories were hollow. When she moves to an extremely competitive high school. Watch as a she finds out that her layback way of training won't get her anywhere without some hard work.(Completed)
1. Chapter 1

**Author Notes:** Hello there Firefoxdriver here! This is a story that I've been wanting to do for a long time now. Right now I'm not really sure how long I want to make the chapters, but as the story progresses I really hope I can make the chapters longer. If you didn't read the summary then this is a SYOC story, that means you can submit your own character, for a chance to see them in the story. If you would like to submit one be sure to check the author note at the end of this chapter.

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The sun's rays shone down on a peculiar home. A young girl slowly rose up in bed looking around her simple room. Over to her left was her trophy case. It was filled with rewards from when she was younger, and to her right was her mirror. She walked over to the mirror taking a good look at her appearance.

She looked at her bright silver eyes and took pride in them. She adjusted her short black hair, she swept it off to the side so it wouldn't get in her eyes. She was a Zorua pokemorph, so she was careful not to hurt the ears poking out the top of her head. She reached into her closet and put on her red hoodie and her black short shorts. Overtop she carefully put on her black and red checkered skirt.

She stood up tall and proud taking in the pride that her trophy stand gave her. "Wendy, you're going to do fine! You've dreamed all day about going to a battle high school, and what better way is there to learn than by beating everyone there!"

She ran by her uncle and headed out the door on the way to her bus stop. She knew the bus ride was going to take a long time as the bus would be going into the city. Along the way she was greeted by both her neighbours and many others. She was the self appointed jewel of her town, and for the most part her neighbours went along with it.

Wendy had grown up winning award after award, and the best part is she never really ended up having to try for any of them. For her winning was simply just a part of her life, victory was something that was natural, in her head that was just the way of life. She did think back on how she did have to put almost all of her effort in a battle once for a tournament, but she ended up winning through brute strength. Of course that was a little league tournament so it wasn't super serious, but ever since then she's never really had to put in any work to get results. Little did she know that much later today she'd learn that this way of thinking was highly flawed.

She hopped onto the bus without a thought. Her mind was completely focused on different things such as making new friends, and how glorious it would feel dominating her foes in battle. The thought of a completely unknown girl taking the class by storm had her completely thrilled. These rush of emotions ended up making the bus ride annoyingly long. She placed her face up against the window and saw her town behind her.

Her town was a simple town, it wasn't massive, and the population was just barely 2000 people. It had a downtown section and lots of houses for people ranging from small clustered homes to only a few high class residence. There was one thing that was known through the town, it was known as a sunshine town meaning that it was a great place to just come and visit. Outside of town there wasn't much to see other than a rough black road, a blue sky and an endless line of trees.

After an hour and half drive to the city Wendy finally got a look at what a real city looked like. Sure she had seen pictures and videos of them, but it was really quite different from her small town. There were tall buildings set up in blocks, and many stop light intersections. She had also never seen so many cars bunched up into one area. Walking along the sides of the road looked to be business men and woman along with a few kids her own age.

It was soon after entering the city she had made it to her first day of school. She excitedly stepped off the bus and stared down the building holding her future. She took in a deep breath and excitedly walked in its doors. This was her starting line, and she couldn't wait to run the race.

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 **Author Notes:** Hey glad you made it through the chapter! Tell me your thoughts that would be awesome, I also would love criticism if you have it. I also don't know how long I want to make the chapters yet. So sorry if this was short!

Anyway down below will be the OC Submission Form. For Those of you who have read Three Keys, another SYOC story I'm doing, you've probably noticed that, that story is quite strict with SYOCs. This one won't be nearly as strict.

So down below is the SYOC form and the details.

 **Name:** This is pretty self explanatory, go ahead and choose your character's name, my only real request with this is make sure it's understandable how you pronounce the name, not for me but for the other readers. For example I mean something like this "His name is pronounced Joel, but it's spelled Jowolol." Don't do that. Also make sure to include a last name.

 **Age:** Every major character for this fic is within their freshmen year for high school. So the closer you make your character's age from 14 - 15 will make them have a higher chance of showing up in the story.

 **Height:**

 **Gender:**

 **Species:** Any pokemon is allowed just no legendaries, mythic, or ultra beasts.

 **Appearance:** Describe how they look, from head to toe. Your description doesn't have to be too detailed. Although it might help if you end up describing their hair colour, how they style their hair, what their eyes look like.

For things like hair colour, go wild! This is a pokemorph story so if you want green hair on your character it's completely ok!

However there is a must for their appearance, make sure they have a trait that relates to what ever pokemorph species they are. If you're the first person who just so happens to make a Charmander pokemorph you'll be the one who's standardizing the pokemorph traits, so that might be fun.

Also just remember that just because your pokemorph might be a Charmander, that doesn't mean their hair colour has to be orange. They can be what ever you want them to be.

 **Clothing:** What do they wear on a day to day basis, there is no school uniform, so just pick and choose what you want. You can also give me additional things like what they wear into battle, if you don't give me that then I'll just use their day to day clothes. If you want feel free to include swimwear or heck even sleepwear.

Also just remember that just because your pokemorph might be a Charmander that their clothes don't have to be orange. They can be what ever you want them to be.

 **Personality:** Sometimes this can be the hardest thing to come up with. If you're having trouble with coming up with a personality just follow this simple rule of 3. 1, Describe what they're like with first impressions. 2, Describe how they act around friends and family. Finally 3, Describe how they act when there is no one around.

Really go nuts with this.

 **Likes:** What are their preferences it could be as simple as food likes, or what they look into when trying to find a relationship. If you want to get on my good side I would recommend what they look for in a significant other, this could go from personality traits or even purely just physical appearances.

 **Dislikes:** What do they dislike, it doesn't have to be what they hate. Maybe they don't like insects, or don't like sour things. Maybe watching horror movies is something they'd rather not do. Or in more extreme cases maybe describe their fears.

 **Fighting Style:** How do they fight, is there a kind of martial art they use, or are they some sort of mage archetype that fires off blasts of fire from a distance.

 **Conduit:** These are weapons that the user uses by charging it with their energy. So this is where weapon martial arts would come into play. This could be anything from simple daggers to a weapon that happens to be a massive shield that turns into a sword and is also a gun at the same time.

 **Attacks:** Attacks in this universe work slightly differently in this universe. Any attack that can be learned to your character can be used. Although powerful moves like Fire Blast have a longer cool down if that makes sense.

So say a user uses Fire Blast they have to wait say like 20 seconds before firing off another one, where as somebody using a move like Ember can fire off the attack as if their arms were machine guns.

 **Origin:** What's their backstory.

This is a must for their origin. Please Choose one of the originating kingdoms your character is from. Choose wisely.

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 **The Vexal Kingdom(Western Kingdom)**

Vexal is the kingdom to the west. The kingdom is well known for being a place to start a family due to the high job acceptant rate. Vexal has a thriving commercial scene due to it being placed near every other kingdom.

Vexal is known to have some very strong battlers born and raised here. Despite all these advantages the only reason the kingdom has stayed for so long. The reason is their mutual respect for the other kingdoms.

This is the kingdom where the school takes place.

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 **The Jasper Kingdom(Southern Kingdom)**

Jasper is the kingdom to the south. The kingdom is well known for investing a lot of its money into battle schools and or the military. This is because the Jasper kingdom was originally a waring kingdom, but they've stopped their rampage a very long time ago, and traded it for world peace.

Jasper has some of the strongest fighters representing their kingdom. Their fighters are feared for their pure ability to steam roll opponents due to their sheer strength.

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 **The Aether Kingdom (Northern Kingdom)**

Aether is the kingdom to the north. The kingdom is well known for its breakthroughs in technology and science. They have quite the following since most of the tech used in the modern world was invented by them.

The culture in Aether is strive to be the best you can be as you might one day change the world. Aether doesn't pump out extremely powerful fighters on the regular but their fighters still manage to place well in tournaments, with the use of their powerful conduits.

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 **The Tsu Kingdom (Eastern Kingdom)**

Tsu is the kingdom to the east. The kingdom is well known for how many movie stars come from it. Or how many contest stars come from it. This kingdom has quite the following for being home to a verity of pop idols.

The culture in Tsu is very similar to the culture in South East Asian Countries in our world. Where beauty is everything if you aren't up to the standards in beauty you are more likely to be less successful.

But this has created a lower class of citizens that are well known for their art in dirty tactics. If you ever want someone out of your way, go to Tsu's thriving criminal market, but that's if you have the right amount of cash they're looking for.

With the criminal market fighters that come out of here end up learning close quarters knife play or disarming fighting styles.


	2. Chapter 2

Wendy stepped off of the bus and looked ahead at the school. She took in a deep breath admiring the sight of the place she'd be studying to achieve her dream. It was a tall building that made out of steel. It had many windows on all sides of the building similar to the surrounding skyscrapers in the city. Around the main building were smaller skyscraper like structures, each one had their own symbol that represented a certain department. Although each one of them were out shone by the main building which had a grand symbol of a sword and shield.

She saw many students around her from all the four kingdoms attending this one school. Many of them looked excited while many of them also seemed quite nervous. For Wendy it was mix of both emotions as she stepped towards the sliding steel doors. When she stepped inside the school there was an instant feeling of cold air rushing past her skin. The air itself smelled of paint, and maybe a little ink. Looking at the main foyer there was a big step area that led down to a cafeteria. From the looks of it the step area leading down to the cafe doubled as a sort of place for the school to hang up banners, and a place for students to sit. Over to the left were some halls that led to the main office, and over to the right was a stair well.

Wendy looked across the foyer to see a big grouping of students. They were grabbing papers from students who were most likely in their third year. There were also signs and banners telling her that getting a sheet of paper from those students would lead her to class. When she walked up to the crowd she soon noticed that the crowd was actually quite a long line. She knew it was going to be quite the wait as it seemed that each paper was different for each student. There was a slight worry that she'd be late for her first ever class, but after thinking it over the school was more than likely prepared for such an event.

She felt a light tap on her shoulder, she turned around to see quite a face. The person standing behind her was a Crobat pokemorph, he stood at around five feet and eight inches. So he was about two inches taller than she was. He had short purple hair that was spiked off to the sides, and a pair of soft amber eyes. He wore a baggy white button up shirt with a black blazer on top. His dress pants were probably the only thing on his body that actually fit him well. He also happened to have a the most stereotypical coloured tie for a crobat. If you were wondering it was purple. But looking at him his most outstanding features were the large purple wings protruding out of his back, and the cute ears poking out the top of his head.

"H-hey, uhm... you're holding up the line. You're up next."

Wendy soon snapped out of her trance, and turned around. She received her papers. When she was about to leave the line she looked back at the crobat and said. "Thanks for telling me, name's Wendy."

She clenched the paper in her hand and soon moved over to an empty space that she could find. Her ears were quite sensitive, and she could hear a pitter patter running behind her. She looked back to see the same Crobat running towards her.

"Sorry, but uhm I never got to tell you my name. My name is Winston Star. I'm going towards the battle department. How bout you? Where you headed?"

Wendy perked up. "Wait so you're going to become a professional battler! Wait wait wait! What kind of fighting style do you use? Do you have a conduit!?"

Winston was taken back by the sudden spike in excitement. "I use a lot of what you would call dance fighting. I do also happen to use a conduit, it's really just some cheap knives made here in Vexal."

Wendy puffed out her chest proudly. "Well you and I are going to have to spar sometime. I'm gonna kick your ass. I'm also a knife user!"

Winston scratched his cheek. "So why'd you decide to become a pro fighter?"

Wendy crossed her arms. "Cause it's badass, also it's always been my dream to become one! How about you Winston?"

Winston let out a nervous laugh. "It's kinda embarrassing, but my younger sister said it'd be cool if I became one. So that's why I'm doing it."

The two of them eventually made it to the battle department, which had just so happened to be on the outside of the main building. The battle department was that similar to a sports dome. It was a large oval that was raised up, but the actual dome itself was basically a large blow up balloon.

Wendy stepped inside the dome and felt the rush of cold air. Looking around the battle department it was clear that this was on a larger scale than she had ever experienced. The inside had rows of chairs up in bleachers. The entire dome was illuminated by large lights along the sides of a main battlefield. The battlefield itself was made of sand, dirt with a layer of concrete beneath. It was marked with a mid point and of course an outer boundary.

There were also many students scattered across the area. Many of them were either chatting with people they already knew, while a few looked more serious as they were either warming up or stretching. Looking at the center of the battlefield stood an older man who looked to be around his mid 40s. He had long black hair that reached past his shoulders, he had a well toned face, but a unclean mid afternoon shadow. He had faded red eyes with large dark bags underneath them. He wore almost all black, with a baggy long sleeved shirt and some baggy black pants which were tucked into knee high combat boots. Around his neck was a white scarf and poking out the top of his head were luxray ears. His tail was wrapped around his waist and the star of his tail almost looked like a belt buckle.

"Alright, looks like everyone is here. Gather round, I'm your home room teacher for this school, just call me Mr Alan alright."

Each of the students gathered around, just by looking around the room Alan could see that he had quite a large class, and it was probably due to the fact that becoming a pro battler had become quite popular in the recent years.

"Ugh... Alright here's the deal. We have a whole semester to get you guys ready for the yearly festival that all the kingdoms hold together. The Vital Festival, and if all of you signed up for this school, I'm sure you know what that means. If you don't, then what the hell are you guys doing here? So I'd like to see where some of you stand in terms of how comfortable you are in a fight. Any volunteers?"

Wendy put up her hand and walked towards Mr Alan. "Yeah I'll have a battle!" She turned towards her classmates with pride. She couldn't wait to wipe the floor on one of them.

"Miss, name, and what's your conduit?"

"Mr Alan, I use hand to hand combat, and the name's Wendy."

Everyone's eyes shot towards a hand that slowly raised up. It was someone with messy short black hair and dark brown eyes. He had a lean body and didn't really support all that much muscle. He was a blaziken pokemorph with small red horns sticking out of his forehead, which actually for the most part were covered up by his hair. His clothes were odd, he had a dark black jacket that fit tightly around his upper body, although the ends of it did reach down to his knee, but it left the front of his legs exposed. Within the jacket a faded mahogany layer. His shirt was quite loose, and it was a deep navy with small white speckles in it. For pants he wore some black jogging pants and his shoes were really torn up.

"Mr Alan, if it's alright I'd like to volunteer as well. My name is Justin and I also use hand to hand combat."

Mr Alan soon walked to the edge of the battlefield and instructed everyone to have a seat on the rows of chairs that the stadium had. Wendy ended up on one of the ends while Justin stood on the other, He had dark rings on his wrists which really did indicate that he was a blaziken. He soon pulled out two ring like structures which he applied to his wrists. It was clear that they were conduits, but as to what they did everyone wasn't too sure.

Then Wendy did something that made the entire crowd go silent, and it was something that peaked the interest of Mr Alan. She crossed her arms over her face, and her hands began to glow, one of her hands became surrounded in a bright white light while the other had a shadowy aura. A short white blade formed formed in her right hand and a dark shadowy blade had formed in the other. She took in a deep breath and stared Justin right in the eye signaling that she was ready for battle.

Justin was taken in awe, he had heard of people who could form weapons from energy, but never did he think he'd see one in person. He grew cautious of who he was fighting.

 _"If she can form weapons without the use of a conduit there's no telling how strong she is. Either way, I'll just have to see what I can do against her, first test the waters see how she reacts then punish an unsafe option."_

Wendy was all excited deep inside. _"I can't wait to kick his ass. This is going to be so easy!"_

Mr Alan raised his hand. "The rules are simple the first one to pin their opponent on the ground for more than five seconds is the winner. Knockouts are illegal, and causing any form of permanent damage will be cause for instant expulsion. Do I make myself clear."

Both Justin and Wendy nodded. Mr Alan fixed his posture. "Then you may begin!"

Justin tensed up his body, and the moment he did so Wendy instantly charged towards him. Her eyes were filled with lust for battle. Her arms flared out towards her sides, it didn't matter to Justin how talented she might be, he knew this was an unsafe approach.

Wendy swung her knife in an upward motion, and Justin pushed her hand away while trying to keep his distance. She was fast, but predictable. Her training was basic at best, and her only strategy seemed to be swing at the chest then swing for the head. He knew that she was fishing for a hit by how hard she swung. The thuds of her wrists hitting his hand became quite soothing, as he knew that Wendy was aimlessly swinging.

Justin flung his body backwards landing on the ground with his hand. He pushed his body up and off of the ground as his wrists soon became incredibly hot. He fired off embers all around him and if different directions. Each ember as it hit a surface made a rining sound, and while they travled through the air a soft whistle could be heard.

"Humph your accuracy could use a little work there pal!" Wendy yelled.

Wendy lunged towards Justin, and saw that he had tripped over his own foot. Justin had his arms wide open for an attack. She clenched her fist and as she was about to strike Justin down, an ember bounced off of the ground and hit her wrist. The actual hit wasn't strong, but it was more than painful enough to make her knife disappear.

 _"Yes! She took the bait!"_ Justin landed on both of his hands and wrapped both of his legs around Wendy's arm. Using his body weight he pulled her down. He soon placed his knee on her elbow and grabbed her other wrist twisting it making sure she let go of her weapon. "Heh, maybe you should've worked on your form."

"Alright Justin, let her go you've won this match." Mr Alan stated.

Justin stood up and cleaned off his clothes. Wendy sat there completely enraged, her arms and wrists were sore from how much pressure Justin had put on them. She clenched her teeth and scowled in frustration, it had happened all way too fast. She was sure that she had the advantage the whole fight, all Justin ever did was dodge and block.

She stood up. "I call bullshit! I should've been able to move so much faster! That wasn't a real win! If I was moving at my top speed I would've kicked your ass!"

Justin turned around. "Maybe you should look at all the burn marks across your legs before you start to judge. If you were moving at your top speed you probably could've dealt with me, but there's a reason I fired off all those embers. You didn't notice them because I made them tiny, but they were bouncing all around this entire stadium at different times and speed. Although that in itself is not inherently a strong thing, most of them were actually not even strong enough to burn through a piece of paper. I had to predict where you were gonna move, and predict how the embers would bounce ahead of time to just barely touch you, just enough to slow your speed down without you noticing. I had also noticed that you were charging in without a thought, so I knew that if I faked a mistake, you'd more than likely try to go all in. There were 120 different possible ways I thought that you might attack in that instant. I'm glad I chose the right one!"

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 **Author Notes:** Well there is the second chapter finished! This one was more of a first chapter if anything, but hey that's alright. Anyway thank you to everyone who did end up submitting an OC! There were quite a lot to go through, and many in varying qualities.

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter, as this mainly for world building and stuff like that. Also I must give credit where credit is due and these were the OCs introduced in this chapter.

Mr Alan created by " **Xander 46** " Hey man thanks for creating the main teacher for me, it was really appreciated, even though you are one of my betas, I'm still so grateful that you can always come through in a bind.

Winston Star created by " **Xander 46** " Winston fills a very important role in the story, and I'm really glad you submitted him. Thank you so much for the support you've given me!

If you guys didn't see your OC in this chapter that just means they are going to appear later on. I'll be PMing everyone who I accepted soon to tell you when you're character is going to appear. Also if I haven't responded to your character can you please just say something so that it's at the top of my PM inbox. It is more than possible that I've lost your OC in the mess that is my PM inbox.

Anyway see you guys in the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Notes:** I don't usually do these at the beginning of a chapter, but first off I have to apologize publicly to a user called " **Mega Espeon.** " I know I said I was going to be introducing Fritz in this chapter, but unfortunately to how the outline worked for this chapter, I couldn't find a good way to show him off.

But I promise that he will be introduced in chapter 4.

Anyway please enjoy the chapter!

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It was the hour after Wendy had finished her fight with Justin. Mr Alan was just finishing up some notes on his clip board, but none of this mattered to Wendy in her fit of rage. Her blood was boiling, she couldn't take her eyes off of Justin, whenever she looked at him she only had a lust for revenge coursing through her veins. Winston sort of just sat there slowly backing away, he could feel the rage bubbling inside of the girl sitting right beside her. There was a lecture that Mr Alan was giving about the fight between Wendy and Justin, but neither of them could focus because of Wendy's blinding rage.

 _"I swear I will kick his ass next time!"_

Mr Alan finished up his lecture and looked at the clock. "Alright class we might time for a few more battles. Does anyone want to volunteer?"

One of the kids who had been slouching in their seat raised up his hand. He had fire like hair that that moved and flowed with the excitement and energy he was emitting, in the hair itself were orange and red patterns that really helped give the appearance that his hair was fire like. His striking blue eyes gave off a feeling of overwhelming intimidation, as if you wouldn't want this person up in your face. He got up and walked over to the battlefield to where it was apparent that he was a Infernape pokemorph. He had long arms and short legs, but it was quite apparent with the way he was always crouched.

"Teach, my name is Yajima, and I'll prove to all these bastards that I don't need a conduit to win! Whoever fights me better come at me with all their strength or else!"

Winston tapped on Wendy's shoulder, she looked over to see him taking off his white button up shirt and blazer. Removing his shirt underneath revealed a skin tight body suit that was padded in multiple areas. The same deal with his pants, it was very clear that his lower body was much stronger than his upper body.

"Wendy, now that I've seen how you fight, let me show you what I can do!" Winston stood up and with one large leap he hopped down onto to the battlefield. "Mr Alan, my name is Winston Star, my conduit are just some simple knives."

Winston stared his opponent in the eye. He kept his stance wide, and he held his knives in the exact same way Wendy did. His wings wrapped around his body to form a sort of cloak and he instantly stiffened up.

Yajima let out a smirk. "Hey Turkey Legs! You better go 100% or else you're gonna get it you here me! If I think you're holding back for even a second I'm going to bust your brains in! Ya here me!"

Winston raised his brow. " _Is this a intimidation tactic? Either way I just have to look cool and flashy. Just imagine my sister is in the crowd, also win this for Wendy."_

Mr Alan raised his hand. "Alright rules are the same as the previous fight. Both of you may begin when you're ready."

Yajima smirked and instantly lunged at Winston, Winston stepped back, and he felt the breeze of wind rush past his face as Yajima's fist barely grazed his skin. He soon deflected Yajima's hand away from his gut, only to feel the full frontal force of a blow to face. The hit burned it was as if his skin was on fire.

Winston could only see a blinding flurry of attacks flying towards him. All he could do was defend. Each attack he blocked was soon followed up by another strike on somewhere he forgot to cover. He would block with his arms, but each time Yajima managed to smash through his defense, and each time Winston tried to create some distance Yajima would throw out a powerful round house kick, knocking him back into Yajima's combo range.

It was looking hopeless Yajima's constant assault practically made it impossible for Winston to do anything. Winston would get knocked down with a kick, and roll away from one of Yajima's overhead strikes, only to get hit into another flurry of assaults. It was clear to Winston and everyone else that Yajima was augmenting his speed with the use of close combat and mach punch, but it wasn't only just that. It seemed that Winston was getting tired taking hit after hit, his body seemed like it wasn't even able to block anymore.

Winston had the blood rushing to his head, and his vision was blurry, but he could still see through what Yajima was doing. He just needed to find an opening, a time to strike. He took in a deep breath and quickly flipped onto his hand, he pivoted his body around his hand to form a kick that made direct contact with Yajima's fist. The impact sounded like a gun shot being fired off.

With the quick opening Winston soon got out of there. There were scratches and bruises all over his body, but in his eyes there was a willingness to push on. _"Ok he's not going to give me any room to breath even now he's probably going to go all in"_ Winston raised his voice. "Don't even start to think about underestimating me!"

Winston landed on the ground and stiffened his body as Yajima ran towards him. "Oh yeah Turkey Legs! Whatcha gonna do about it!"

Yajima threw out a right hook, and was instantly surprised when Winston blocked the attack with a well placed kick. Winston fell onto his shoulder, and pushed up on his arm throwing a powerful lunging kick right into Yajima's jaw. Winston's quickly flapped once to suspend him in the air for just a few seconds, just enough time for him to do a full round house kick across Yajima's face.

Yajima was sent reeling back, and running toward him was Winston, he had two metal knives in his hand. Winston threw one of his knives at the ground right in front of Yajima. The knife exploded right in front of him creating a spurt of smoke that went directly into Yajima's eyes. The smoke burned like living hell, and it made his vision incredibly blurry.

Yajima felt Winston leg wrap around his arm locking it in place. He then felt three powerful kicks at his side, and a kick that had the force of a baseball bat smacking right in the side of his head.

Winston was out of breath but he still had his hands up. He stood over Yajima who was on the ground rubbing his eyes. "I told you not to underestimate me!"

Yajima wiped his mouth and smiled. "Not bad Turkey Legs, but I've got a surprise for you." He wiped his eyes and fully opened them. There was a deep energy bubbling inside of his body, it was a natural reaction to combat for many species, but it was a genetic Osia that could change the entire flow of battle.

"RRAAHHHHHH!" A pillar of white hot flames erupted from the top of Yajima's head, his eyes were glowing, and his muscles seemed to have bulked up. Blaze had been activated, and Winston knew he was in trouble.

Yajima disappeared as if he had teleported right behind Winston, and with one single blow to back of the head Winston was knocked out cold in a sizeable crater in the middle of the battlefield.

"Turkey Legs, try a bit harder next time or else I'll kill you!," Yajima yelled.

Wendy stood there, she couldn't move. There were people in her class that strong. Sure Yajima was strong, he was incredible, he did win the fight after all, but the biggest shocker to her was Winston. He was simply out of her league, she couldn't get over how powerful his kicks were and despite nearly getting beaten to a pulp he was still able to stand and fight. She realized that she had no right claiming that she'd beat him. She watched as Winston slowly came to his senses, and was shocked that he was still smiling after that loss, even despite the fact that Yajima refused to shake his hand, he was still smiling.

Winston walked back up into the bleachers and sat down right beside Wendy. "I guess I wasn't really able to show off, you should teach me how to form weapons out of energy, it could be helpful!"

Wendy looked over all the bruises on his body. "Winston, those look painful. How are you smiling? You lost!"

Winston rubbed the back of his head and winced once he felt how painful it was. "Losing is just a part of battle. Sure I'm upset, but I'm smiling because I know that I still have room to improve. My sister said that I should always keep my head high no matter what!"

Wendy and Winston stayed seated as they watched each of their classmates battle against one another. To Winston this was all exciting seeing so many talented battlers that he'd one day get to learn from. On the other hand Wendy was terrified, everyone she saw were incredible at fighting, and some were probably even better than Winston and Justin. She felt in the first time in her life that there was a massive wall quickly building itself in front of her. In the shivering fear of what she had gotten herself into the lunch bell had finally rung.

"Wendy? Hey Wendy! Earth to Wendy! The bell rung it's time to head for lunch!" Winston said.

Wendy stood up with her head down. "Yeah... ok let's go."

The two of them walked side by side, the skip and happy step that Wendy had earlier in the had practically vanished. Winston could see that she probably came from a life of pure victory, and wasn't all that used to losing. They reached the lunch hall or what some might call a cafeteria, the cafeteria itself had many rectangular tables organized in rows. Off to the left from where Wendy and Winston stood was a empty stage that had a few balloons trapped by the curtains. Looking to the right led to a few exits to the outdoors, and the entire wall was basically a wall of slightly tinted windows. Across from them was a wall of food that students could buy from, but everything that you could buy definitely overpriced.

Wendy sat down with Winston sitting right in front of her. She felt her pocket and instantly knew that she forgot her wallet at home. "Ughhhh!"

"That was quite a loud groan. Is everything alright?" Winston asked.

Wendy slouched over the table burring her face into her arms. "I forgot my wallet in the excitement of getting ready."

Winston reached over to his lunch box and placed it on the table. "I can share some of my lunch with you. My sister always makes way too much, and I can never finish it on my own."

Wendy looked at the array of sandwiches Winston had. His lunch box was filled to the brim with egg salad sandwiches each one of them with the crust cut off and cut into triangles. There was a banana that had holes poked in it so it would brown with a message of "I 3 U!"

Winston scratched the back of his head. "She really goes all out huh! First day and she's already doing it! Anyway, you can help yourself, I only end up eating one of these."

Looking around the cafeteria there were sights of older students talking about their day, and many of the first years were awkwardly trying to find a table to sit at. Some were struggling to find a friend group. Justin in particular was awkwardly looking around the room, he spotted a cute girl. She was much shorter than he was, perhaps she stood at around five feet tall. She had warm cocoa skin, and a build that could only be described as elegant. Her hair was a deep violet with the occasional golden streak running through it. Her hair was tied up into a thick braid which seemed to fall towards her upper thigh. She had a pair of beautiful yet scary mint coloured eyes. On the top of her head were Liepard ears and at the base of her back was a long uncurled tail. For clothes she wore a brown bomber jacket with a black t-shirt underneath. She also happened to have a mid thigh jean skirt, and her jacket matched quite well with her knee high tanned leather boots.

Justin stood up straight holding two cups of black coffee in his hands. _"You can do this! Yeah it'll totally be fine! First day, just trying to make friends! There's only like 50 possible ways I can screw this up!"_ He awkwardly walked up to the mystery girl with anxiety completely running through his veins. "Heyo! Crazy weather we're having! Am I right?"

The girl looked at the boy who was breaking down in a nervous sweat. "Oh you're that guy from my battle class. The one who had a pretty good ember strategy."

Justin sort of squeaked in response. _"Shit! She said something completely different! Quick change the subject you idiot!"_ He took in a deep breath. "So how about some coffee! I didn't know what you liked so I kinda just both got us some black coffee. Oh wait hold on on uhm! I completely forgot to introduce myself!"

"Don't worry about it, my name is Maria." She looked at the black coffee sitting in front of her, she winced at was disgusted by the smell, but she ended up pretending to take a sip as not to be rude.

"Well Mario I-I mean! Maria! I-I'll be on my way! Over there, outside, nice talking with you!" Justin awkwardly sputtered.

Soon lunch was over and the remaining students were on their way to their next class. Many of the students were either really nervous like Wendy, or completely excited like Winston. Others were sad that lunch had ended so soon, but it was time for everyone to figure out where they truly stood within the school.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Well I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I tried my best to write the fight, but personally I still think I'm terrible at writing them. I know the OC intros weren't that great, but it will get better with due time.

As always I must give credit where credit is due. The OC's introduced in this chapter are the following.

Maria Alverda created by " **Anonchan1** "

Your character fun fact was the first character submitted into the story, so you had that going for you. Also I just really like your character, her personality and the way she interacts with characters I think is going to be a lot of fun to write. Everyone reading please be sure to give your thoughts on the character. Anon, don't worry despite her brief introduction she's going to be appearing much more often, I just need to introduce the rest of the cast first!

Yajima Sozen created by " **ObieSenpai** "

Well your character was quite a surprise coming in from left field. There was just this spark of creativity and originality with your character that I could not ignore. You had me smiling the whole time I read over your character, and my betas were quite impressed. I think you may have impressed my story outline beta a little too much as he wants to see Yajima as much as possible. You can for sure see Yajima playing a major role in the story.

Edit: June 17 2018

Ok for everyone who is going to and has submitted an OC. I have a surprise for you, ask me what an "Osia" is and you might be able to add it onto your character.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Notes:** I'm just going to apologize in advance, but a lot of characters are being introduced in this chapter. I'll try my best to make sure they get the time they need, but I really struggled in writing this chapter. So please enjoy!

* * *

Wendy and Winston had recently just finished their lunch, and now were headed towards the indoors gym for their next class. As their first day at this school progressed Wendy found herself already quite familiar with the crobat right beside her, and she was pretty sure Winston felt the same way. Although she never had trouble making friends, it was kinda cool in her mind that Winston was such a friendly person.

The two of them eventually made it to the gym, only to be greeted with smell of sweat and baby wipes. The gym was jam packed with machines that both Wendy and Winston have never seen. The gym itself was also quite large having a one kilometer track inside. Looking around the blue mats had faded white lines on them and were clearly quite old. On the other side of the gym they could see the teacher. She was a Arcanine pokemorph, so she ended up having two ears poking out the top of her head and a big bushy tail which was wrapped around her waist. Her bright violet eyes were quite sharp, and her overall build was quite muscular. She did however keep her long blonde hair neatly brushed. For clothes she wore nothing more than black leggings, and a orange sweater that had the school's logo on it.

The teacher looked once at her clip board and walked towards Winston and Wendy "Glad to see you two made it. I'm going to be your fitness teacher for the year or semester. If you could, Winston go stand over there with that group, and Wendy I'd like you to stand over there. Oh by the way just call me Miss Hills"

Both of them understood that they were being separated off into groups. Wendy looked at her group and saw four other people. There was a Aegislash, Glameow, Phantump and a Garchomp. She put a bright smile on her face and approached the group, taking a good look at each one of them. She recognized them all since they were all in her battle class before lunch.

Eren the Agislash, he didn't really battle in class. He told Mr Alan that he wasn't ready for a fight, making him one of the weaker members of class. As much as it concerned Wendy she at least took pride in the fact that she was better than someone in her battling class. This guy had long dark blond hair that fell down to his chin, the hair covered up one of his purple eyes. His build wasn't too obvious as he ended up wearing a black t-shirt with a faded golden zip up hoodie, and some dark coloured jeans.

Fritz the resident Glameow hitting the age of becoming a Purugly. He was also one of the many staff users within the battle class. He wore a purple button up shirt with a torn up blue bandana underneath its collar. He also happened to wearing a pair of baggy jeans along with some white running shoes. As far as what Wendy had observed of him, he followed a fighting style that was very similar to her own. His eyes were odd the whites of his eyes like normal people were actually yellow, and his pupils were a dark blue with the irises being a lighter shade of blue. His nose for the most part was the same colour as his skin, but at the tip of it, it was slightly pink. Protruding out of his nose were three long black whiskers each side. His hands and feet resembled those of mittens, but they allowed for extendible claws. For hair he had it styled neatly and smooth, and the its greyish blue colour really complimented him. On top of his head were two ears and at the base of his back was a long grey tail which had a fully white tip.

Coraline the Phantump, she was quite a cute girl, someone who didn't look like they fit on the battlefield. But her skill with her ko-naginata was quite frightening. She had wavy black hair that fell down to her shoulders. Her compact muscles and soft curves were more than enough to make Wendy jealous and slightly self-conscious, but on top of it all she had a chest that made Wendy look flatter than sheet of paper. She wore nothing more than a simple grey short sleeve button up blouse, some purple suspenders, black skinny jeans, and some black flats. But the most noticeable thing about her was the small wavy branches that protruded out of her head just above her ears.

Finally the last person in her group was a very tall, very handsome Garchomp pokemorph. Wendy wouldn't lie to herself and not say that this guy wasn't handsome. He had dark shaggy black hair that fell down to his shoulders, his eyes were the most brilliant shade of almond gold. Around his eyes were yellow scales, and his bright smile showed off his jagged teeth. As usual of the Garchomp species he had dark blue fins on his arms and one on his back. He wore a sleeveless jacket with a tear in the back to allow his fin to move freely, and his torn up jeans had holes to allow the spikes on his body to be free. He didn't really wear shoes, but it added to the natural charm he had.

Wendy walked up to her group, with a proud stance, she never had trouble making friends back in her home town. This was no different from approaching a new group of friends, and from the energy they all gave off it was clear that none of them knew each other. Looking even closer at her group, Eren was constantly on his phone, Coraline kept to herself, Fritz seemed to be making small talk with Markus and for Markus himself, he was a social butterfly trying to get both Eren and Coraline to talk.

"Hey, Miss Hills told me to join your group, my name is Wendy."

Fritz instantly perked up and approached Wendy. "Meow, my my my aren't you a cutie, tell me Wendy. Ya like classical?"

Coraline slowly looked at Wendy and instantly looked back down. She meekly put up her hand and said a simple hello.

Markus walked in behind Wendy and placed his arm around her, making her stand up straight. "Heya Wendy! I was amazed by how you made weapons out of thin air! How did you even learn how to do that!"

Wendy casually formed a weapon in her hand, and everyone's eyes soon darted towards the weapon. "I don't really know, I kinda just think about how I want to use my energy, and it sort of just forms for me. I've been able to do it ever since I was little. Really cool I know, you don't have to praise me, but if you want to you can."

Coraline meekly looked up. "I-I've never seen anyone other than some high level pros pull that off. It was too bad you lost against that other guy. He, wasn't all that strong a-and w-well he was kind of a mess at lunch."

Both Markus and Fritz pitched in. Markus blurted out. "Yeah don't worry he used a cheap tactic to beat you! The way he fought wasn't manly one bit!" Fritz licked his lips. "Nyeow ya didn't have enough time to warm up. I'm sure you're quite a strong fighter."

As everyone's praise was filling Wendy's head with the fact that she was much stronger than all of them, the boy who had been on his phone the entire time soon looked over. He let out a soft sigh and decided to speak up. "Stop giving this loser pointless praise, she lost her fight because she was too weak to realize that she sucks at fighting."

Wendy looked over. "What did you say punk?"

Eren smirked. "I said you suck at fighting. The reason you lost is your lack of discipline, you're so bad at fighting there is a 100% chance you'd lose to a 1 on 1 fight against me. You could even tie my hands behind my back and handcuff my legs together and I'd still win."

Wendy walked over and grabbed Eren by the collar of his shirt. "That's fucking bullshit and you know it! I'd kick your dumb ass in a fucking heart beat you hear me! Far all everyone knows you didn't even fight in our class! All you did was sit there on your phone and when you were asked to battle, you simply said 'oh I have the right to refuse combat' so don't give me crap saying that you can beat me! You only have the right to say you're better than me when you can prove it! Justin used cheap tactics and that's that! All you've done is play on your phone!"

Eren ran his fingers through his hair and let out a soft chuckle. "I only fight against opponents worth my time. I don't have time to be rubbing shoulders with noobs, you strike me as a 'prodigy' someone who got everything they wanted from daddy. You got all the nice clothes you ever wanted, and you got all the rewards you ever wanted. Now you're in a place where everyone is better than you and it hurts your tiny little brain, you simply can't accept that you are trash at battles."

"Fine if you want to talk shit, I'll shut you up right here and right now! You wanna go, let's battle you asshole!" Wendy yelled.

"I told you I don't fight people who aren't worth my time, but if it makes you happy I can challenge Justin over there to a fight, and I'll show you the difference between our strength." Eren laughed.

"Humph, whatever. All you are is talk! You didn't even fight in our first class, so in fact you're not even worth my time." Wendy pouted.

Around the room there were two more major groups, for all intents and purposes one group was Winston's and the other was Justin's. When Winston walked over to his group, he definitely could feel his heart beating out of his chest, he was nervous. Looking at the group he noticed people from his battle class.

In a nervous tone he approached the group. "Hello, Miss Hills told me to join this group. My name is Winston, could I perhaps get yours?"

A Scizor pokemorph turned around with a bright smile. "Oh hey! You're that guy with the crazy kicking style! Dude you were so cool! The names Aiden, nice to meet ya!" He had medium length black hair and soft yellow eyes. He was well toned and had small pieces of red metal sticking out of his skin. On his back were the signature scizor wings, and he didn't wear anything super complex. Just a simple red shirt, some black pants and black sneakers.

Looking over he saw a eastern Ninetales pokemorph. She had a cold spiteful stair, and it wasn't the least bit warm. She had ash blonde hair that fell down to around where her elbows were, and the front was styled to have some slight bangs. Her creamy brown eyes were giving Winston a death stare as if he had done something wrong. Below those eyes were some freckles sprinkled around the bridge of her nose, and on top of her head were Ninetales' ears.

"What are you staring at? There are other things around this room other than me! But since you introduced yourself my name is Asteria."

When everyone was introduced they were soon given instructions for the rest of class. It was basic fitness testing, and some people did much better than others. First up for Wendy's group was the 4000 meter run. It was a 1000 meter track, so they'd have to run around it four times. The results were quite interesting. Wendy was in the lead for the whole time and was just shy of the school record. She also didn't even seem to be tired, Markus was behind Wendy by a whole 5 mins and Fritz was close behind. Coraline reached about what the average person would, and well Eren threw up all over the track at about 500 meters. As for Winston's group none of them really stood out in the open.

Next up for the fitness tests were the amount of pushups, crunches and squats you could do in 10 minutes. Wendy was again in the lead for this reaching a whopping 820 push ups, 730 crunches and 680 squats. Each exercise had it's own individual 10 minutes, but either way the numbers she reached was un real. Like in the 4000 meter run Markus was in second and Fritz was close behind him. While Coraline was again quite average in her own respect, but Eren had thrown up near the start from pushing his body too hard.

Wendy was taking a sip from a plastic water bottle. Markus, Coraline, Aiden and Winston were all around her. She smiled and looked at each one of them. "What's up guys?"

Winston was hunched over with his hands on his knees. "Huff... Whow! Wendy, you're really fit! I can't believe you were 30 seconds off of the school record! That's incredible, and the school record was set by a jolteon pokemorph, and you were 30 seconds behind their time!"

Markus sat down completely out of breath helping Coraline sit down beside him. "There you go, here have a sip of my water."

He handed Coraline his bottle. She shyly took it in her small hands and took a sip. "Thank you, so uhm Wendy. What did you do before coming here. Did you also attend a combat school before coming here?"

Wendy stretched her arms and legs. "Nah, I never did any of that boring crap. I went to a regular school, but I did end up winning a lot of tournaments growing up, actually in fact I don't think I've ever lost a single tournament."

It was the cool down period of the class, so each student was either stretching or socializing with their classmates. Looking around the room Wendy was relaxing, Winston was doing his stretches, Justin was oddly enough writing some stuff down in a notebook, but even weirder Yajima had continued to do high intensity exercise despite being told to stop.

Wendy could hear her newly made friends talking in a corner with Winston. She walked over to join in the conversation and it was made obvious that they were talking about Eren. The guy who had been on his phone the entire time in the corner, basically gave up at every attempt to exercise, and refused to battle on his first day.

Wendy sort of laughed. "What a joke that Eren guy is right? I mean all he's done is throw up and play on his phone. And he has the nerve to tell me he'd kick my ass in a fight."

Coraline chewed on the bottom of her lip slightly before she decided to speak up. "Guys, I wouldn't underestimate Eren if I were you. I don't know him personally, but he and I come from Aether, so I grew up hearing about a distant boy named Eren. Apparently in his combat school he's never lost a single match or even been scratched. From what I've heard he's so strong he could destroy some of the current pros, he also apparently beat his combat teacher in a adult tournament he entered."

Markus' jaw was dropped, he scratched the back of his head. "No way that's kinda scary don't ya think!"

Winston decided to pitch in. "Well I mean you guys are from Aether. Some of you do carry some crazy conduits, so I can see it being completely possible, but it's still hard to believe with how poorly he did."

"Coraline, that's your name right? Look rumors are rumors, actions speak louder than words, until I see how he fights he's super weak. So don't even worry about it, I'd like to see him fight against any one of the people in our class, guaranteed he's going to lose."

The day had come to a close and Wendy took the bus back to her house. The bus ride was quite long and she soon learned that it would be like this from day to day. But from her fitness class she once again realized that she was quite amazing and shouldn't be too worried about how much better people are than her at fighting. She knew and believed in her heart that her strength and power would eventually overwhelm her opponents.

She came to her house, her tiny little house opened up the door. It was dark and cold like usual, as her uncle was usually out at work. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a quick snack before heading to bed. She did her regular routine which ended with her lying down in bed. Her first day at high school wasn't so bad, it had it high moments and its low moments, but she couldn't wait for the next day.

* * *

Wendy was sitting in her class, beside her was Winston, Coraline and in behind her was Markus. Mr Alan stood on the battle field with both arms crossed. He had a stern look on his face as if their real training was about to begin. What came out of his mouth didn't surprise anyone one bit, but what happened after is what shook Wendy.

Mr Alan took in a deep breath. "Alright kids, one of you refused to battle yesterday, and that person happens to be Eren. I've already spoken with your guardian, and now you must battle when I request. So today you are going to be battling someone here. Would anyone like to battle against Eren?"

Eren put up his hand, and Mr Alan quickly took note. "Yes Eren?"

"Mr Alan, if it's alright I'd like to battle Wendy." Eren said.

Mr Alan raised his brow. "Very well. Wendy, do you accept Eren's challenge?"

Wendy grew the biggest smirk. "You bet!"

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Hey guys Firefox here, glad you guys made it to the end of this chapter. This took me way too long to write with how many things I needed to get into this chapter. I have officially counted and there are a total of 13+ characters in this fic combined with SYOCs and my own. That isn't to say that I'm still not accepting, but the acceptant rate or percentage has gotten a lot stricter and there is one more person by the name of artrt that I still need to respond to.

Now like usual I'm going to be giving credit where credit is due. So here are the characters that were introduced.

Eren Kragg created by " **Infectedvirus23** "  
For those who you don't know Infected over here is one of my betas, but that doesn't mean I give him favourites. Anyway this character fills in a niche that was desperately needed during the time and development of the story. Really glad to have Eren as part of the cast, and I'm really hoping that everyone will come to enjoy him as much as I enjoy him myself.

Fritz Katze created by " **Mega Espeon** "  
I'm going to be frank here, Fritz is very fickle and hard to write for, but I do enjoy the challenge. He didn't get shown off too much this chapter, as I want to develop a good amount of the characters relatively at the same pace, so it doesn't feel like one specific character is taking the spotlight from everyone else. Either way expect big things from this evolving glameow.

Coraline Devaney created by " **POMForever** "  
I was seriously looking for a shy cute girl so much so I was beginning to think that i'd have to make one myself. Anyway I love and adore this character and she has a smile worth protecting be sure to look out for this young girl later on! Also she is a favourite among one of the betas that read this story.

Markus Milani created by " **TheLastDarkovian** "  
This is a fun lovable character that is easy to write for. He makes a lot of the character interactions really easy among a group of awkward and complex people. I like his simplicity a lot, but that doesn't mean he won't get serious development later on.

Asteria Windwood created by " **XxCreativeSoulxX** "  
A few words to describe this character. "Girl Next Door" simply my betas and I love this character. It was really well done, and there is so much planned for her. So please be sure to keep an eye out for her.

Aiden Cole created by " **Dan Blue** "  
As Aiden is the most recent addition to the SYOC list, we still don't much planned for him and he was only briefly introduced in this chapter, but I plan to have him more interactive once he has his first battle.

Anyway guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, make sure to give your thoughts on the chapter as a whole, the power displayed by the characters, and most importantly please review more than just your own character. I know how much work goes into creating a OC and how much it can mean to other people by seeing how other people think about their character.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author Notes:** Hey guys FireFoxDriver here. So I'm sure a good amount of you have read Lizzy2k's review. If any of you were wondering, as an author I do try to please everyone, and make sure that the story is enjoyable.

She did end up reviewing each character that has been introduced so far. So if you guys feel that you have been wronged feel free to send her a **PM**. But **Xander46(Story Outline Beta)** , wanted me to do this so here's my public response to her review.

 **My Response:**

Thank you for taking the time to read through chapters 1-4 the views certainly help quite a bit.

I'm very sorry you feel this way. If I can further elaborate on why the characters might seem bland and boring to you, is the fact that chronologically the time passed in the story is only approximately two days. I plan on flushing everyone's personalities as the story comes along, but as of right now there hasn't been enough time to show off everyone.

I'm sorry you feel that way about Wendy. It was never my intention to make her seem like a sue. If I'm headed towards sue territory with the MC I'm sure many people will let me know.

I'll touch more on the PM you had with one of my betas for saying that Justin is too similar to Deku from MHA. You said he's similar because of his note book, and the fact that he has a read based fight style. Going by that logic Justin could be a rip of Light from Death Note. He is based off of a certain aspect of my own life. So I'm sorry you feel that way.

The rest of the characters are not of my own creation, so if you want to talk to them yourself. Or if the authors of the many characters in this story want to say something to Lizzy. Let your voices be known.

Anyway please enjoy the chapter guys! Also for your reviews please the last thing I want is a battlefield or war in my reviews. So any beef you want to have just do it through PM.

* * *

Wendy once again stepped onto the battlefield with a new found confidence. She knew she was stronger and faster than Eren, this would be an easy win. Everyone in the crowd respectfully watched, she looked up to see Winston sitting there giving her a thumbs up which did put a bright smile on her face, and it did bring a small amount of warmth through her chest. Justin once again had his notebook out and seemed as if he was diligently taking notes, as if he needed to do it. Wendy did find it odd, but it wasn't something to focus on.

Eren slowly walked out onto the battlefield, but he seemed to be talking to some of the more physically fit students in the class. This student brought down what looked to be a large metal block. The block itself was about as wide as Eren, and it's height reached up to his knees. It was golden in colour, but had a mat finish making it look quite dull in the lights that lined the battlefield.

"Mr Alan, this block of metal here is my conduit. I hope you don't mind the use of it." Eren said.

Mr Alan looked at his clipboard. "As long as you don't break the rules then it should be alright. Eren if you don't mind me asking, but can you even lift that up on your own?"

"Nope, but it is handy as a chair." Eren sat down on the block and pulled out his phone while keeping one of his hands in his pocket. "Alright I'm ready whenever the weakling is ready."

 _"Weakling he shouldn't even be making that claim when he threw up on the first lap yesterday! I can't wait to slice that phone out of his hand, and pin him on the ground"_ She took in a deep breath and like before she formed two weapons out of thin air. She got into her usual stance and took in a deep breath.

Mr Alan raised his hand. "Alright you two may begin!"

Wendy charged right towards Eren quickly closing the distance, she thrusted her hand out towards Eren. The energy in her left hand quickly disappeared and transferred to her right hand to extend the simple knife blade into something resembling a katana. Eren looked right at Wendy as she approached, but he was calm, simply looking back down at his phone. He could hear the whisking sound of the air as Wendy made her fast approach.

When Wendy was about to make contact she closed her eyes for a split second only to hear what sounded like a gong being rung throughout the entire arena. Massive vibrations shot up her arm making it slightly numb. When she opened up her eyes in front of her was a large egg shape like dome in front of Eren. She looked down to see that the shield of sorts had been protruding out of the large metal block he sat on, and the face Eren had pissed her off. It was as if he wasn't taking this fight seriously.

Wendy backed off, and came in front another angle to take a slice at Eren, but a shield had once again popped up and completely nullified the attack sending more and more vibrations up her arm. She took in a deep breath and once again formed both knives, she approached Eren at an even faster rate, but to no avail, each time she became faster in the fight the shield would appear at the moment she tried to swing at it. Each time she struck the shield she could feel the vibrations from the impact running up her arm and into her shoulder slowly making it numb. Each hit sounded like a gun shot being fired, as each hit echoed the sound, and many sparks flew from each strike. No matter how fast Wendy approached Eren, the shield would form in a split second, and there would be little to no cool down on when it could be brought up again. The only thing she saw is that he would wait for her blade to either retract or dissipate before brining down the shield.

 _"Damn it! Maybe if I try this."_ Wendy's arms began to glow with a bright white light, she ran around the battlefield, and in the middle was Eren who had simply sat on his block with a phone in his hand. She threw one of her knives directly at Eren, and once again the shield had formed to block, but as it blocked Wendy quickly ran around Eren and threw another one, now for the fist time two shields had formed to protect Eren, and the block underneath him had shrunken in size considerably. He was basically sitting on a pillar that was just barely able to support his weight.

With this Eren was no longer sitting on the block but instead the ground. This made it clear to everyone that no matter how weird Eren's conduit was, it had its limits. Wendy realized that Eren would wait till her blades disappeared before dropping the shield. There was a clear opening that she could reach.

She dived for that one opening, and as she approached Eren who turned his body, both of the shields had dropped and the metal formed a wall right in front of him blocking Wendy's attack once more, but this time was different. The quickly metal wrapped around her arm and up her body if felt like warm water was beginning to cover her up. It traveled up her arm and down her body reaching to her legs as if it had a mind of its own. It locked her in place pinning her feet to the ground. The metal had gone from a faded gold into a faded blue colour, and now from warm water it felt like cold steel. It was in this moment she soon realized that her feet had been pinned to the ground, and she was completely immobilized. This had also happened in a split of a second, and there was no time to even react to what had happened.

Some of the remaining metal crawled its way up Eren's body and collected at his hand. He put his phone away and at the end of his hand a sword from the metal had formed. "Checkmate Wendy. Rules are, if you can't move you lose."

Wendy struggled against the locks on her ankles, but it was no use. This was an unfair fight, Eren had set her up to look like a fool, and she hated that smirk across his face. "This is stupid! Your conduit is op! That's the only reason you were able to beat me!"

Eren's sword retreated from his hand and went underneath his jacket. It was clear that this is where he held his conduit for most of the time, just underneath his clothing. "This is why I don't respect you, you're always running to excuses. I stood still in the exact same spot for this whole fight allowing you to run free with all your speed that you're so proud of. Why try to match my opponent in speed when you can simply wait for them to come to you. It made your path of attack quite linear, and all I had to do was block your on coming attacks. This time you can't use the excuse of not being at your top speed, because I let you run freely around the stage. So with that excuse out of the way you blame my conduit."

Wendy bit the bottom of her lip. "That's right! That dumb conduit of yours is too good! It shouldn't be allowed it basically fought for you! All you did was play on your phone the whole time you cheater!"

Eren stretched his arms and let out a loud sigh. "Fine, if that's how you're going to play it. I might as well give you the run down how my conduit works. It's not as strong as you think it might be." Eren pointed to his temple and wrist. "Implanted in my wrist and head are neural transmitters which I use to control tiny nano bots which is what my conduit is. The nano bots themselves are useless on their own, and they must be physically touching me to work within a certain radius. Wether that be sitting on them or holding them in my hand. Then you might come to the conclusion how I can make shields that I wasn't touching. Well the way I arrange the nano bots can change them from a more liquid state to a completely solid state, but I have to control the state change manually. Also if I'm not putting 100% of my thought into controlling them they could easily harden and bend in weird ways, if right now I stopped concentrating on them and let them run free it would slice my body in half, and I'd end up dead. I also have to keep control of my mind's involuntary muscle movements as that will also have a form of control over the nano bots. My power doesn't come from physical strength, or speed, it comes from technique and the application of my skills. Simply being strong and fast won't win you fights. I was never gifted with this skill from the start, I had to work for it, and that's why I hate prodigies like you." Eren began to walk away. "Next time you start picking fights, make sure you're not all bark and no bite. For a Zorua you literally used none of your strengths like complex illusions. You're a fucking retard in my book, and someone who doesn't belong here. See ya around, but you should probably drop out, this isn't the place for someone like you. Oh also the bindings around your ankles are in the liquid state now, you should be able to move."

Up in the crowd a particular Crobat pokemorph was chewing out the button of his lower lip. His face was seething with rage, despite not knowing Wendy for long he couldn't just sit there and let her take it. He stood up and walked down from the bleachers not caring what Mr Alan would think.

"Hey! Why don't you shut the hell up! Eren, what gives you the right to belittle a fellow classmate! We're all trying out best to achieve our dreams, and you're just walking all over hers! What gives you the right?!" Winston yelled.

Eren looked Winston in the eye. "This is Vexal right? Freedom of speech!"

Winston clenched his fist in a fit of rage, he slowly walked towards Eren no longer caring. "Why, you little!"

"Enough!"

Everyone's eyes turned towards Mr Alan who held onto the scarf around his neck. He had quite a stern face. "Back to your seats, as a combat teacher I have the right to restrain any student who I think is a risk to the health and safety of my class. Now Winston, I suggest you sit back down, or you're not going to be around tomorrow to tell the tale. Eren see me after class." He walked up to Wendy and wasn't surprised to see her with her head down. "Don't take the loss too hard, there's always something that you can learn from a fight. Wether you win or lose."

* * *

It was the after hours of school, and Wendy was at the bus stop. She thought about the battle she had today. She's never been spoken down to before in that degree of intensity. It stung more than she could've imagined. When she thought back to when Winston tried to stand up for her, she was trying desperately to hold back her tears. Off in the distance she could hear a soft pitter patter slowly getting louder. Looking to her left running down the sidewalk was Winston. He was giving her a big smile and a wave. She slowly raised her hand and meekly waved back, and patiently waited for him to approach.

"Wendy! Hey! Hey look, I was wondering... I know it's only like the second day of us getting to know each other, but I'd really like us to be friends! Do you maybe want to come with me, to a great place in the city. Coraline, and Markus are going to be there. I also heard that Markus invited a few people as well!" Winston excitedly said.

Wendy pulled down a little bit of her short hair to slightly cover her eyes. She curled the hair in her fingers. "I'd love to go, but I don't want to miss my bus."

"Don't worry about it my dad can drive you home, and if worse comes to worse I could just fly you home! It might take a lot longer than a bus, but don't you think it'd be so much more fun to travel with a friend!" Winston said.

Wendy made a soft giggle. "Alright fine, I just have to get permission from my uncle." She pulled out her phone and made a quick text, and after a few minutes began to walk beside Winston. "Yeah I can go, my uncle isn't going to be home again. So where are we going?"

"Markus said we're all going to the arcade. I've been there before it's a pretty fun place to hang out with friends." Winston smiled.

A rush of excitement coursed through Wendy's veins. "An Arcade?! I didn't have one in my town growing up! C'mon let's go!" She grabbed Winston by the wrist and booked it in the direction they were walking.

"W-Wendy! Wait up! Do you even know where you're going!" Winston yelled.

"Nope no clue! But anything to get my mind off of my loss is what I'm going to do right now!"

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Hey guys so thoughts opinions on the chapter let me know! Give me thoughts on the battle, and if you're maybe wondering if I changed the fight plan last second. I'd just like to point out that it was always planned from the start for Eren to either fight against Justin, Yajima or Wendy as his introduction.

Don't forget to give your thoughts on the fight! Did Eren fight the way you expected him to, do you think he's a strong combatant. I'm sure **Infectedvirus23(Eren's creator and OC beta)** would love to know.

Infected I know how much you were hyped and waited for this fight to happen. So I'm hoping it lived up to your expectations.

Also I'm trying a new chapter style and tell me what you guys think of it. Normally I'd treat chapters as natural stopping places for a reader, but I figured that I'd give it a try by structuring chapters as if it were a tv show episode. Let me know if it's a good change a bad change or you're neutral to it.

Alright I guess I'll see you guys in the next chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author Notes:** Say hello to character development! It had to happen some time! Also I put a Kid Icarus Uprising reference in this chapter see if you can find it! Also I decided for this chapter just to be a small fun and chill chapter, since all the past chapters have been quite intense with their battles.

Anyway I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Wendy walked side by side with Winston to the arcade. Standing in front of the arcade was a brand new experience for her. The building was multiple stories tall, and it was mostly made out of red brick. At the top of the building was a bill board that read out "RecRoom." Standing at the door were a few of her classmates that she recognized. Looking from left to right was Coraline, Markus, Maria and Justin. Winston waved to all of them and Wendy followed closely behind.

Markus soon waved back "Winston, looks like you brought Wendy!"

The large group walked inside, to the right was a prize counter which contained small things from plastic rings all the way up to large prizes which had probably been sitting there for years. The actual floor of the arcade has a tough carpet, and many games had been lined up. The arcade was split up into sections for gambling, casual games, ramped up versions of mobile games, and even a few things involving sports.

Winston handed out bracelets to everyone. "Here, the arcade runs on a credit system. So with my parent's money we all have unlimited credits for 2hrs."

Markus flashed a big smile. "So you guys wanna all travel as a group or do you want to split up?"

After a small discussion it was decided that Maria, Justin and Wendy would all go solo to later meet up with group. These three wanted to survey the area to see what was around. While Coraline, Markus and Winston decided that they'd all play some games together.

* * *

Maria walked around the arcade and was soon drawn towards the claw machines. She knew that a good amount of them were rigged, but there were a few in the arcade that did give the player a fair chance. The ones she knew you could win at were usually the things with small prizes or a title of "play till you win". There was a glittery round orb in one of the machines that she had to have.

It was a fat little glittery cat that she wanted and needed. She walked up to the machine and scanned her bracelet and tried for the keychain. She carefully maneuvered the claw with an intense amount of skill. For someone as intelligent as her this was child's play. The claw fell down onto the pile of stuffed animals and keychains. The three hooked claw soon grabbed onto the label of the keychain she wanted and it soon in her hands.

She looked at the keychain with great delight. "This is perfect!"

"That was pretty good! Mind if I try winning a prize?"

Maria turned around to see a smiling dummy. "Hello Markus, sure go ahead. I'm already done."

"You don't mind helping a pal out! Never been too good at these things. Also these fins can get in the way!" Markus smiled.

Maria let out a soft giggle, and walked right beside Markus. "Ok sure."

* * *

On one of the other ends of the arcade Winston walked side by side with Coraline. There was a thick tension between the two of them. Winston wanted to start a conversation with her, but she was so shy and awkward that it made it quite difficult to form any sort of solid conversation. They played a few small games together, and it was very clear that neither of them were all that good at video games.

"Uh, so Coraline. We've been walking around for quite a bit of time. Do you maybe want to grab a drink or something like that?" Winston asked.

Coraline nodded in response, and Winston was still quite nervous not really being able to get anything out of her. Some might've asked why Winston was trying so hard to be her friend, and it really had to do with that he wanted to be friends with as many people as possible.

They eventually made their way to the food court area of the arcade. It was where they sold food on sticks and many kind of soft drinks. Normally in this situation you would buy some soda, but Winston had a strict diet, so he ended up getting water while Coraline had an ice tea.

"W-Winston?" There was a soft red hue across her cheeks as she looked him in the eye.

Winston's back and wings stiffened up. He couldn't tell if this mean't something, or if she was simply just nervous. He decided to go with 'she's just nervous'. "Y-yeah?"

"W-why did you personally invite me? Even after I decline Markus' offer."

Winston let out a sigh of relief. "Simple! I want to be your friend! I could tell during training that you were off put by Markus! I asked you anyway, and you accepted! That's gotta mean something right!"

Coraline took a small sip of her drink through her straw. "Fine if we're going to be friends... th-then t-tell me something you'd do recreationally. I-if you don't mind."

Winston thought on it putting his hand to his chin. He wasn't sure what to share, it was clear to him that Coraline wouldn't open up if he wasn't one-hundred percent honest. "Well, it might sound a little dorky or nerdy or even lame, but if I could. I'd like to go camping, and fly up into the night sky and stargaze and look for my favourite constellation."

Coraline slammed her hands on the table, she looked Winston in the eye with large sparkles in both. "Which one is your favourite! Also don't you dare call camping lame! So so so tell me which one is your favourite!"

Winston scratched his cheek at Coraline's sudden burst of excitement. "W-well where do I start?"

* * *

Wendy had just finished up playing a few games, turns out she was really good at video games too. She didn't expect much, since she really only played fighting games, but she was glad to know that she was good at everything else. Where her passion lay was truly in fighting games, the intense combos, the exploits in the neutral, and reading her opponents. That was her favourite thing in the world. Luckily for her there was a 2d fighters section in the arcade, it was quite empty at this time but there were a few people dotted here and there.

She then noticed Justin who was sat down at waiting for his turn. This was her chance to get back at him for beating her. She quickly ran up to him and grabbed him by his sleeve. He turned around to see an angry little zorua pokemorph.

"Uh... uh Wendy? Do you need something?" Justin asked.

"Yeah! Play against me right here and right now!" Wendy demanded. She took in a deep breath. "This'll be retribution for our first battle!"

Justin smirked as his whole persona changed. He covered half of his face as if he had turned into an anime villain. "Forth thou has broughth upon a challenge against the great 'LordTouchMe' young maiden I accept thy challenge in ancient combat!" Justin returned to normal. "So uh... Road Fighter V is taken. You want to play Fatal Combat, Murder Instinct, Super Bash Sisters? Or Road Fighter IV is free we can play that."

"I guess Road Fighter IV it is!" Wendy smiled.

The two of them sat down Justin ended up picking a character called 'Riu', and Wendy went with her tried and true main 'Kent'. Both of their bodies tensed up and leaned towards the screen. As soon as the fight was declared Wendy rushed right in, and Justin calmly stepped back block the first hit, and out of the hit Justin grabbed Wendy resetting it back to neutral.

It soon turned into a back and forth game of footsies where Wendy and Justin were just trying to find an opening to each other's well played game of avoidance. Each time Justin tried to advanced it was met with a well placed parry or block, and approaching from the air was impossible with how well Wendy was able to react with an anti air. Empty hopping became incredibly unsafe with Wendy trying to bait out an unsafe option by spamming fire balls.

Justin slowly approached by doing something he was hoping Wendy didn't know how to counter he blocked one of the fireballs and soon did a focus cancel to phase through the next fire ball closing the distance. Wendy blocked in a panic, and Justin reacted with a sudden grab throwing her to the ground. Wendy was in trouble, she was now in the corner to Justin's onslaught, he had successfully grabbed her three times in a row sending her into stun, and leaving her wide open to a destructive combo. She slowly watched as her life bar was getting depleted, she was caught with a lucky break as Justin messed up his execution, and he tried to quickly cover it up by throwing out the safest option possible.

Wendy had predicted the safest option and was able to parry, she quickly inputed her super, and jumped for as the super was more than enough to completely deplete Justin's health bar.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Justin did you see that comeback! That was amazing! That game was amazing! I've never been pushed to the edge like that in Road Fighter!" Wendy squealed.

Justin stood up and gave Wendy a bright smile. "Wendy! You're incredible at Road Fighter! I thought I was good at the game! Too bad I messed up there near the end."

Wendy grabbed onto Justin's hand. "C'mon we're playing more games!"

What soon followed was a back forth victory montage of Justin winning games over Wendy and Wendy winning over Justin. The two of them had broken the record for the basketball shoot out multiple times, and they had ended up cleaning out the machine. They played many cooperative games with each other, and they soon found out that playing together was probably the most amount of fun they had ever experienced. They had set out to try every single game there, and for the most part they were pretty much equal at everything except for gambling which they both knew was completely rigged.

The last thing left was a photo booth. Wendy scratched her cheek and Justin rubbed the back of his head. It was very clear to both of them that this would be awkward if the other wanted to go in. They weren't sure of how they wanted to handle this.

"So... this is the last thing huh." Justin said.

"This seems like something a couple would do. But you wanna go in anyway?" Wendy asked.

"I said we'd hit everything in here. Let's finish the last five minutes we have with our credits here." Justin said.

The moment both of them stepped inside, it was very noticeable how tight it was. Wendy soon noticed that she had almost instantly become really good friends with Justin. She didn't have to think when talking with him. In comparison she already felt closer to him than Winston, with Winston she had to think about everything. Justin was different, it was like talking to an old friend that she had missed.

Justin thought to himself, he hadn't noticed it, but Wendy had clung both of her arms around his left arm. When he did notice it, he didn't mention it, he just thought out of the many options running through his mind, that this a way of conserving space. One thing did pop out at him, he had tried making friends ever since he had moved to the city, and making friends was always hard for him. But being with Wendy, he didn't have to think as hard. He was able to hold a conversation with her, and that made him really happy.

Both of them made a peace sign to signify the start of their friendship, and they ended up taking just two pictures. When they excited the booth Justin spilt the pictures up and handed one to Wendy. It was time to leave the arcade, and that mean't it was time to leave Wendy. For some reason he felt sad but fulfilled knowing that he was going to see her the next day.

The group had met outside of the arcade and they each said their goodbyes. Wendy, Winston and Justin were the last ones to leave. "Uh... Wendy, I heard you live outside of the city, how do you plan on getting home? None of the busses near here run at this time."

"Winston's dad is coming to pick us up. They'll be dropping me off in my home town to where I can take the bus back to my place."

Justin scratched his cheek. "Alright make sure you stay safe alright. Ok guys I'll be walking back to my place see ya around."

As Justin was walking away he heard Wendy call out his name. "Justin! Wait!"

Justin stopped and waited for Wendy to catch up. "Before you go! Here!"

Justin held the piece of paper in his hand and took one quick look before shoving it in his pocket. He smiled "Thanks!"

With that Wendy and Justin said their goodbyes, and Wendy headed home with Winston. The two of them didn't talk at all, and any conversation Winston tried to strike up with Wendy ended in simple nods, and the shake of her head. There was something on her mind that didn't want to ignore. When she did arrive home she took the picture that she took with Justin. It was both of them with big bright smiles, they had peace signs way too close to the camera, and Wendy finally noticed that she was holding onto Justin's arm, which she didn't mind one bit.

She looked at her phone and it was from a number she didn't recognize but she knew that he had probably typed her number into his phone as soon as possible. "That dummy!"

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Wow ok! So take this chapter and tell me what you thought of it. Xander told me it feels like that this was like starting romantic relationships, but my intent was for it to be the start of platonic relationships, but then again I also keep secrets from my betas, so it could be starts of romantic relationships. Anyway let me know what you thought of it! If you have them Shipnames might be fun!

I'll see you guys in the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

**Author Notes:** This is just a quick update on the update schedule. There won't be an update for a long time, as my family and I are going on vacation for about 2 weeks. I'm saying this now just to let you guys know.

* * *

Mr Alan had everyone sit down on the bleachers he had some important things to say after he had finished watching everyone battle in one on one fights.

"Alright class calm down, now that I've seen each one of you battle in one on one fights I have assessed where you stand in my own personal opinion. I know that many of you wish to become pro battlers, and some of you might have different motives for joining this school. Either way we have to start preparing for the Vital Tournament. As many of you know it's the tournament that has many different battle schools from many different kingdoms attend. You might also know that all the battles are exclusively fought in teams of two. So today we're forming teams. I'll let you guys choose who you want to team up with, and just remember just because you team up, that doesn't mean you're stuck together forever. If you feel that later down the line that you can't work together, you're more than free to trade partners with another team."

There was one single thought across the whole classroom, there was an overall wave of excitement as this mean't they were all one step closer to their goal. Students soon got up and asked the people who they thought were the best fighters for getting partnered up. Two individuals who were swarmed with requests were Eren and Yajima. While people like Winston and Wendy were left in the dust.

Justin looked around for someone to partner up with, but who was he to join. There were so many possibilities, but there was also so many possibilities disappearing at how fast people were forming teams. He thought about joining up with Wendy, but she was already taken by Winston, and Maria had already formed a team with Markus.

Though a certain individual wanted to be sure with who he wanted to form a team with. He knew there was someone in this entire class who could cut right through his defense and that someone was Xavier Slaatern. The two of them knew of each other, but they hadn't talked up until this point. Xavier was one of the few pokemorphs that despite already being a steel type he had decided to get mechanical enhancements, which was odd for a metagross. He had dark blue armor plates for skin. His hands and feet were claws that were clearly quite sharp, and his cybernetic eyes had a blood red glow to them. Across his face was the signature "X" of his species. Coming out the back of his head was dark black hair, and his jaw line was defined and rigid giving him a look of cold intimidation.

Eren walked up to Xavier. "Hey, you're the only person here worth my time. Let's form a team."

Xavier turned towards Eren. "You're probably right about that. But your inconsistent use of your nano-bots is laughable. I know you and I use a similar conduits, yours is simply a less effective version of mine"

Eren bit the bottom of his lip. "Offense isn't everything. As far as I'm aware in a 2v2 situation your nano bots won't be able to protect you. That's why I'm saying that if we combine my unbreakable defense and your unstoppable offense we'll destroy the competition."

"Heh, now you're talking my language. I'll form a team with you, but you and your organic pieces better not get in the way." Xavier said.

"Trust me they won't." Eren said.

"Tell me that after you throw up from too much exercise. I'll meet you on the battlefield." Xavier said.

* * *

Mr Alan looked at his clip board looking at the teams that had formed. He smiled at a few of the teams, and was very excited to see what they could do. It was time for a battle, he wanted to see what the students could do on their own before he started to go in and make adjustments. He already knew that a few of the teams would fall apart within minutes.

"Everyone, now that you have formed your teams I think it's time for some mock battles. Do we have any volunteers?"

In the crowd there was some discussion, but surprisingly a girl who had been quite reserved for the entirety of being in class had put up her hand. It was Maria, "Markus and I would like to battle."

Soon after Eren put up his hand for the fight which was also quite a shock to everyone sitting there. In the class Yajima tapped his foot, and his partner beside him was off put. She was slightly annoyed by the tapping of his foot.

"Yajima, would you stop! We can fight after them." Asteria said.

"Shut it Freckles, I didn't team up with you because I fucking wanted to! You were the only one who didn't beg to be on my team. You better not fuck up our fight or else I'll kill you!" Yajima yelled.

Everyone watched closely as Eren and Xavier stood on the field. This time around Eren wasn't sitting on a golden block, but instead he was in a legitimate fighting stance. Xavier was in behind Eren probably as ranged support.

Maria looked calm and collected while Markus was filled with excitement sporting a huge smile across his face. Maria was wearing something different from her usual outfit. This was her battle gear consisting of a black tank top, and tight grey yoga pants. She wore some beaten up sneakers and black fingerless gloves along with some state of the art elbow and knee pads. In her hand was a staff that from the ground reached to about her shoulder. The tips of the staff were tipped with metal. Standing behind her was Markus who carried two massive shields, that looked incredibly heavy.

"Markus, you protect me from their attacks, so stay close and try to keep up. Make sure to follow my lead for this fight" Maria said.

"Ha ha ha you got it! Let's kick some techno butt!" Markus laughed. He clanked his shields making the entire arena echo with an intense sound.

Mr Alan raised his hand. "You two may begin!"

The moment Mr Alan put his hand down Maria charged in, and within a split second was in front of Eren. Eren stepped back and in a panic quickly formed a shield which had formed from underneath his clothing. The staff was inches away from his face and the shield had formed around the staff's length. The resulting clash flung wind and air around the stadium, and it just showed how much force Maria put into that strike. Maria pulled on her staff releasing it from Eren's grip, she spun around slamming the side of her staff into the side of Eren's shield, his arm was blown back, and Eren deformed the shield. The liquid metal crawled all the way to his other arm to form a sword, he took a swing only for Maria to pivot on her foot allowing Markus to take the advance and completely deflect his attempt of attack. The attack rung with a loud gong, which brought a big smile to Mr Alan's face.

"Aw yeah take that!" Markus yelled.

"Not bad for a muscle head!" Maria laughed. "Alright switch!"

Markus pivoted on his foot allowing Maria to switch onto the offense, and with the momentum she slammed the edge of her staff across Eren's face. Eren winced from the pain, and jumped back holding his cheek as he felt a small bit of blood trickle down from it. He luckily moved his head back slightly or else that strike might've knocked him out completely.

"A little help would be nice Xavier!" Eren flared out his arms and in both hands formed two swords. Around his knees, ankles and wrists formed small layers of metal as a form of protection. "Support me from range you bastard!"

Xavier stood there as he watched Eren struggle against the team work of Maria and Markus. He hated organics and it burned within him that for him to win this fight it was him vs Eren, Markus and Maria. A wave of metal traveled ups his body and onto his shoulder forming what appeared to be a gun of sorts. It had circuitry of energy all forming towards the mouth of the weapon. Without warning, he fired a massive blast from the gun. It was a laser that traveled over the ground melting the area beneath it into a thick pool of lava.

Eren saw the massive beam, and in response he quickly blocked one of Maria's attacks. Some of the metal from his sword traveled down her body and to her ankles locking her in place. He quickly got out of the way of the beam that was headed straight towards Markus and Maria.

Markus quickly got in front of Maria. He stood his ground and put up his shields. He clanged them together and when the beam made contact. The blast waved and warped his shield, and the pure heat was transferring through his metal shield heating up his arm and whole body. The pain was intense, but he needed to hold on or else Maria would be completely out. He toughed it out through the pain, but he was reaching his limit. When he was about to give up from the constant heat and pressure the beam had finally dispersed.

Maria stood there in awe. "Your strength is impressive Markus."

"You kiddin? Anyway, those two are completely out of sync we can win this." Markus said.

Eren was already out of breath. He was one of the strongest people in a one on one fight, but having to deal with Maria's oppressive fighting style and Markus' incredible endurance was something else. He looked over to Xavier who was firing off blast after blast, but each one would either be dodged or blocked.

"Xavier, I have a plan! I need you to distract Markus, can you and your cocky ass manage that?" Eren yelled.

"Are you doubting my abilities you filthy organic." Xavier fired off multiple blasts to isolate Markus. He was on the brink of falling over having to block each one of the powerful plasma blasts.

With Markus isolated Eren used his conduit as a sort of trampoline to propel himself over to where Maria was. Using the remaining nano bots he had left on his body he formed a golden sword.

"Maria it's you and me!" Eren yelled. He landed and spun around swinging his sword at Maria, she quickly blocked with the base of her staff, and spun around she attempted to hit Eren in the head, but as she went to go for it Eren's sword had completely disappeared. The metal traveled up his body to form a small shield where his head was "King Shield!"

When Maria's staff made contact with Eren's shield, she felt the muscles in her arm instantly stiffening up. It was as if all the strength in her attack had been completely reflected up into her arms. The pain was greatly intense, as it felt similar to breaking a bone. The shield crawled down his arm to form a single sword. "Swords Dance!" The blade glowed with a bright orange hue. He managed and overhead swing slicing open Maria's cheek. She winced in pain, and tried to recover, but Eren had other plans. He turned around elbowing her in the shoulder. "Shadow Sneak!" His speed increased massively, and his slow methodical sword swings turned into a flurry of strikes. Maria was able to doge a few of the strikes, but with Eren's increasing speed, and her locked up ankles, it was an onslaught on her skin. There were many painful slices on her cheeks and exposed skin. He felt his body reaching its limit, and he couldn't hold onto all three attacks at once. _"One final push that's all I need!"_ Eren leaped off of his foot. "Sacred Sword!" His blade was surrounded in a bright white light, and with one final swing he knocked Maria out.

He kneeled down as his whole body stiffened up in the cool down of his attacks. He looked over to see Xavier laughing there as any attempt that Markus tried to hit him with he'd simply just stand there and take it, and it wasn't long until Xavier incapacitated Markus with a massive array of constant plasma blasts.

Mr Alan raised his hand. "Xavier and Eren win this battle." He stood there quite impressed. _"This Eren kid is going to be a monster he can already use attack activation in rapid succession. That's even something I can't do quite yet"_

* * *

Wendy sat down at lunch, she didn't know how she ended up in this situation, but she was sitting with a few of the girls in her class. Maria and Coraline were both at the same table as her. She upsettingly stirred her noodles as the air grew ever more awkward. Maria had scratches all over her body, and Coraline had small bruises from her battle. Wendy on the other side had a big burn on her arm all because Winston failed to protect her.

Coraline took a small sip from her water bottle. "I... I thought you and Winston would've been better in sync. You two seem to be really good friends."

Wendy groaned. "I got too greedy in the fight, Yajima and Asteria are so good at what they do. Yajima got me way too angry calling me 'Blotches' and Asteria's ranged support was just way too much to handle. Winston and I were a mess, our move sets and styles didn't mesh at all. But Maria, you and Markus were incredible together! I've never seen two people who just met work so well together."

Maria scratched her chin. "Well Markus is pretty easy to get along with, and he follows my lead like champ. I also chose him as my partner to cover my weaknesses. While I rely on dodging as my main method of defense I can't do it forever."

"If you needed a shield so badly you should've asked Eren." Wendy said.

"True that with Eren's conduit it is more versatile, but his personality doesn't seem like someone I'd want to fight beside. Anyway Coraline you and Justin worked really well together!" Maria said.

Coraline let off a small blush. "No no no it wasn't like that at all. I was the main reason we lost. I was a liability to him. His style revolves around using small embers to chip away at an opponent, but with me being a grass type he couldn't let loose. He was really understanding, but I feel so bad for making him lose. Ashly and Minerva were just way too strong for me."

After a bit of awkward silence that fell across the table all their heads turned towards a few guys who happened to join the table. It was Justin, Markus and Winston. Winston sat right beside Wendy, while Justin stood on the opposite end beside Markus.

Justin let out an awkward laugh. "Looks like this is the losers club am I right?" He chewed the bottom of his lip. _"Did I choose the wrong option? Was that the right thing to say?"_

Winston soon pointed out. "Hey at least we all lost with honor. It just means there's room to improve. Right Wendy?"

Wendy tilted up her head as both of her ears twitched. "Uh... yeah!" She thought to herself something she hadn't considered all of her life. _"I might need to start training"_

Markus made his way over to Maria's side of the table and grabbed her by both shoulders making her wince. He looked her in the eye. "Maria you were amazing! Your speed is unmatched!"

Maria could already feel herself beginning to warm up to Markus. "It's not really that incredible. Wendy over here has me beat in terms of long distance."

Markus excitedly responded with. "Sure, but I can't wait to have another double battle with you! I think you and I make a great team! It's like we were made of each other!"

There was a soft blush running across Maria's cheeks. "Uh... thanks." She laughed it off but in her mind all she could think of was. _"Oh man this guy is a dork!"_

* * *

Over on the other side of the cafeteria is where Eren sat alone. He chewed on some pizza that he was finishing up. He thought this would be a nice calming lunch like usual until a certain Infernape pokemorph approached his table.

Yajima walked over with his hands in his pockets. "Hey Goldilocks! Don't you dare even think that any of your victories are real! You rely too much on that damn conduit of yours!"

Eren looked up Yajima. "Yeah so? What's your point?"

"Let's take Blotches, for a second! Your fight with her was pitiful at best! You had your conduit fight for you the entire fucking time! You talked down to her like you owned that victory, when in reality the only reason you're strong is because of that damn conduit!" Yajima yelled.

"What so you're saying is that I'd be useless without my conduit?" Eren asked.

"All I'm saying is that you better get stronger or else I'm going to kill your sorry ass in a fight!" Yajima yelled.

"I didn't train in Jasper for most of my life just to use technology as my main method of attacking. Give me a simple sword and shield and I could probably wipe that dumb smirk off your face." Eren said.

"You wanna go! We can battle right now! I'll fucking kill you in a 1 on 1 fight!" Yajima yelled.

"I'll go in with a simple sword and shield if that makes you happy. But I doubt you'd like that, but good luck in trying to disarm me when my conduit is practically a part of my body." Eren smirked.

"I can't wait to kick your dumb ass!" Yajima said.

"Fine after school then." Eren said.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** So what did you guys think of the chapter? As always whenever I introduce a new character I must always give credit to where credit is due.

Xavier Slaatern created by " **Onyxwhip** "

This character singlehandedly ruined the power balance in my story notes so thanks for that. But I loved the character concept that I knew he had to be added to the story. He will for sure see some more development in the future, and I hope everyone will come to enjoy him as much as I do.

I also plan in the future to further develop Yajima, Asteria, Fritz and Aiden. But right now they are the hardest for me to come up with good arcs to take them through. I promise they'll get more time focused on them as the story progresses. Anyway I hope to see you guys in a few weeks!

This is Firefoxdriver signing off for a few weeks. See Ya!


	8. Chapter 8

**Author Notes:** So I am finally back from my vacation. I am finally ready to start writing again, so I hope you guys do enjoy this chapter.

* * *

There was a bit of eerie air that ran between the open field behind the school. A few students had come to watch the bout that was about to take place. Yajima had challenged Eren to a one on one, and his partner Asteria detested against it, while for Eren, Xavier could've cared less. The two of them had different views on the upcoming battle, while Yajima was filled with determination to beat Goldilocks into a pulp Eren simply wanted to get this over with.

Eren tensed his body and using his nano bots he formed a simple sword and shield. Yajima got into his usual stance, but this time he seemed quite excited for the fight. They had one of the students count down. And as this student begun the count down the entire crowd instantly tensed up.

"Alright the fight will begin in 3... 2... 1... and FIGH—"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS ARE DOING!"

Everyone standing there soon turned towards Mr Alan, he had his hand tightly wrapped around his scarf and his whole body gave off a shivering wave of bright blue electricity. He slowly walked onto the open field and his presence alone made Eren put away his weapons. Yajima still stood his ground, but he did respect his teacher.

"Battles on school grounds without a professional referee is strictly prohibited. This is subject for expulsion, so I suggest that both of you stop your foolish acts right away. I'll give this as a warning try to pull something like this again and I will exempt both of you from the Vital tournament are we clear?"

"Yeah I'm fine with that," Eren responded.

Yajima crossed his arms and let out a grunt, but he did nod his head in agreement with Alan's statement.

Soon the crow dispersed and all that was left was Yajima and Eren. There was a question burning on Yajima's mind, and him being himself decided to ask the question.

"Hey Goldilocks, why do you even use that conduit when your species is known for forming weapons out of thin air?"

Eren grunted and turned around as if Yajima hit a sour spot. "I'd rather not talk about it."

* * *

With the upcoming Vital Tournament happening in a few months many teams were already starting to form their team names and were training hard for the event. After all the winners of the tournament did usually end up gaining sponsorships right away, and winning mean't the jumpstart of your career. Although it wasn't completely unusual for the winners of the Vital Tournament to go into other things such as law enforcement.

However as of right now there was a certain Ninetails and Infernape training hard together in a public gym. Asteria had agreed to work out with her partner, but what she didn't expect was for him to be so intense.

Asteria was laying down on a bench. Her entire body was drenched in sweat, and she could hear people training in the background. Her vision was quite blurry, but most of it was due to fear as this was supposed to be her warm up. It was more exercise she had ever done in her life. Now that isn't to say that she was a couch potato, in reality she did work out regularly, but with Yajima as her partner he was pushing her to new heights.

"Come on Freckles! Lift, damn it! This is only your 30th round of reps, now come on and lift that son of a bitch!" Yajima

Asteria let out a loud groan. "This is not a warm up! Please can I take a break!"

"A break?! You've gotta be kidding me! Our opponents aren't going to wait for us to take a break now lift!"

Asteria put both of her hands on the warm metal bar, and was still relieved that Yajima was still spotting her. The weight itself wasn't all that bad it was just as simple as 65lbs total, but the sheer amount of times Yajima wanted her to do it was what made it impossible. She tried to push up, but could feel the sharp pain running down into her chest and shoulders.

"Yajima! I'm still sore from yesterday, I can't lift it anymore! We already did the 10km run, a ton of core and leg! Please let me take a break!" Asteria cried.

"Fine, I guess you've been at this for six hours. You get a fifteen minute break. But don't come crying to me when someone knocks you out in a single hit during a fight." Yajima handed Asteria a water bottle while picking up his own.

Asteria grabbed onto the bottle and instantly chugged it. She opened up her eyes and remembered that Yajima asked her out to train in a public gym. She laughed at the crazy looks given to her and Yajima. It had been about a week since they first met, and they had become slightly decent friends. Despite the fact that they were going to a combat school that didn't exempt them from regular school duties. Surprisingly though Yajima was quite studious as he was active. She did admire that about him, how he was trying his best all the time, and she wanted to be a little bit like that. Even though it might take some time.

During their break Yajima had this burning question he needed to ask. It was something he had been holding back on for a good amount of time, as his instincts told him that asking this question might be right until he had become decent friends with Asteria. "Humph... why do you hide yourself behind that cold personality?"

A bright blush struck across Asteria's face. "Huh! W-where is this coming from?"

"Just answer the question Freckles." Yajima said.

"I guess... it's just I'm shy." She brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled in Yajima's direction. "But you're not nearly the annoying arrogant prick I thought you were. You're actually quite genuine and kind. After all you're helping me train in my weaker areas." As she said this her face was quite pale, but it was dotted with the blood rushing to her face from the workout. Her eyes were droopy and it was easy to tell that she was trying her best not to pass out.

"Freckles, I respect that you're about to pass out. I can see it from the faintness on your face. Heh... you're not so bad either." He looked at his plastic water bottle and was about to take another sip, until he noticed that it was not his. He looked for his own bottle and noticed that it was empty in Asteria's hand, and he held her bottle.

"Uh... Freckles," Yajima said.

"Y-yeah?" Asteria meekly responded.

"I-it's no big deal! So don't get the wrong idea in your head! I accidentally mixed up our water bottles!" Yajima yelled.

Asteria's face was bright red, and so was Yajima's they instantly turned away from each other and the one thought running through both of their minds was. _"Technically d-does that mean we just NO IT'S NOTHING!"_

* * *

Wendy stood beside her friend Coraline, the two of them stood in front of Winston's door. He had a small humble home with at least two floors. Wendy lived in a small town all her life, so she wasn't quite used to seeing every single house on the street looking the exact same. The same stairway up to the red front door with two windows on each side. A garage off to the side, with two lights perfectly on the edges of it. The same white and beige brick with slightly different arrangements, but other than that all the houses looked exactly the same.

Wendy could hear some commotion happening behind the door due to her sensitive ears. She rung the doorbell hoping that this was Winston's house after all his hand writing was terrible and was quite difficult to read. When the door slowly opened standing there was a girl who looked to be the same age as Wendy. She had a nice curvy body and a bouncing chest that made both Wendy and Coraline kinda jealous. Her face was soft and cute and her long blue hair complimented her well. She had bright red eyes, and she wore nothing more than a simple white tank top, some pink short shorts and some knee high socks. She had blue scales that appeared throughout her skin and the white, but hardened crest poking out of her hair made it clear she was a Bagon.

"Uh... can I help you?"

"Is this Winton's place?" Wendy asked.

The young girl looked at Wendy and Coraline sizing them up. "Oh so you're Wendy and Coraline then. You two are much flatter than I thought you would be! Good so I don't have to worry then!"

"What the hell did you just say to me you brat! I'll have you know just because I wear baggy clothing doesn't mean I'm as flat as a board!" Wendy yelled.

"Ha ha ha! I'm just messing around girl! C'mon in Justin and Winston are in the backyard training. By the way my name is Christina, but call me Chris if you'd like."

Walking inside Winston's house it was clear that it was well kept. To the left was a staircase leading up to the upper floor, and to the right was a recreational room that had a tv, couch and a bunch of family photos. In the recreational room was a table that had blueprints on it, a few pencils and even a few scraps of metal on it. Christina sat at the table and fell deep into her work. Coraline soon found her way to the back to see primarily a grassy backyard surrounded by wooden fences. Back there Winston and Justin doing some basic exercises as a warm up.

She walked out with Wendy and called out to Winston. "Hey, we're here and ready to train."

Winston got up from the ground and walked up the two girls. "Good! Wendy I was thinking about this overnight, but I would like you to train with Justin today! He's really good at teaching the things that I can't. Coraline you and I are going to see what we can do."

Wendy thought to herself, she liked being with Justin, but it embarrassed her that she needed to train. But she had come to conclusion that she might have to put in some work to achieve her dream. She walked over to Justin who seemed to stand there with a great amount of confidence, it was so different from how he acted at school.

"So, what are we learning? Are we sparring like Winston and Coraline?" Wendy asked.

"Nope! Today you're going to learn the basics of fighting," Justin said.

"Are you saying I can't fight!" Wendy yelled

"No no no no! Uh uh... No that's not what I'm saying at tall I mean all! The thing is while you are unrealistically fit, you lack technique. So we're going to start off with the basics of potential energy into kinetic energy." Justin said.

Justin stood right in front of Wendy, and he stood quite close to her, just enough from her shoulder to her wrist. "Alright Wendy I want you to punch me in the chest. The only rule is you have to stand there, and not do that running start you love so much."

"Hmmm, aright fine." Wendy got into her stance and clenched her fist. She felt as if Justin was mocking her, she'd shut him up with a quick forceful punch to the chest. She let out a quick punch, and the moment her fist made contact with Justin's body it sounded like a gun shot.

Wendy had her eyes closed for the entire time, and when she opened them up her face was filled with shock as her hand was away from Justin's body, but he had deflected the punch with one swift movement. She soon realized that the gun shot sound was produced by how fast his movement was and not her own.

"First tip, don't punch like that you're going to break your thumb." With his wrist already pushing away Wendy's hand he softened his stance and held onto her hand. "Here, if we open up your hand, you should never have your thumb inside." He carefully placed Wendy's fingers in the optimal position for a fist, and the way he tenderly handled her made her let off a slight blush.

"Second tip, that punch was a jab, but a weak one at that." Justin said.

Wendy quickly interrupted him. "You don't have to rub salt in the wound saying my punches are weak. Normally they're much stronger, I don't know what happened."

"Exactly you don't know what happened." Justin reached into his jacket and pulled out a small notebook. "Here, this is the notebook that I have to well uh... keep notes. More importantly though I've filled it up with tips and how you can improve." He opened up the note book and held it in front of Wendy's face.

Wendy saw the notes, but decided to read them out loud "Uh... fifty guaranteed pick up lines that will get you a girlfriend? Wow Justin, didn't know you were that desperate."

"WHAT!?" Justin had a bright blush all across his face at Wendy's smirk look. "He quickly flipped the book around in a deep panic and turned over the page to reveal his actual notes. "Here this is what I had planned. Your issue is that you only think about upper body, and the fact you don't know why sometimes your punches are stronger like in the fact that I asked you not to get a running start. All the strength in a punch comes from your lower body. The power comes from the springiness in the legs then is transferred through your core then angled with your fist. So we're going to practice your standing punches."

What ended up happening was a span of time that was an extremely frustrating hour for Wendy. It was the first time she had done anything like this, it was a whole new stance, and a whole new way of throwing a simple punch. She hated how inconsistent, the punches were, but she kept on training due to Justin's constant encouragement, but what surprised her the most was how exhausting it was to do simple punches. While she was fit, her body was using her muscles in ways she had yet to use, and she needed to take breaks every so often.

"Wendy, so how about another break. You've made great progress!" Justin said.

"Yeah... ok," Wendy weakly said.

The two of them sat on Winston's small deck, their eyes laid on Winston and Coraline who were in the heat of close quarters combat. Coraline's conduit was a sort of staff that had a cutlas like blade as the tip. Justin picked up that she was quite fast with her weapon when she had the freedom to move. It consisted of a lot of spins and overhead swings. While Winston's style was that very similar to styles found in Tsu primarily focusing on hard strikes designed to knock out an unsuspecting opponent in mere seconds. However while that sounded good, it was kind of useless in a professional battle setting where everyone knows how to fight.

Wendy took in a deep breath through her blush ridden face "Justin... do you... have a crush on anyone?"

There was a bright blush on Justin's face that slowly formed. "Huh?... W-where is this coming from? I... well I mean. Kind of, but it's nothing special yet. Why do you ask?"

"Oh... so you like someone already..." Wendy said. _"Why does that make me so frustrated"_

* * *

Eren was sat down at a desk. His state of the art computer had a hologram of his conduit's different presets, and at this very moment it was scanning over Xavier's as well. He walked over to where he had a desk that project holograms that would let him work with a virtual version of his nano bots.

"Xavier, the design of your conduit is quite brilliant albeit slightly risky. You're forcibly exploding your own nano bots in order summon those huge plasma blasts. In short run it can be quite useful, but if you keep using it you'll soon run out." Eren said.

"Yeah so what's your point? If you're saying that I can't last in a test of endurance, you're wrong. You and your organic parts are the only thing holding you back. I always finish a fight within a few minutes. So it's no big deal if I waste a few of them."

Eren moved over to a diagram. It showed the maximum amount of time that Xavier would be able to optimally waste away his nano bots before he had any more left to form anything else. "Look all I'm trying to say is that we may be able to improve your body further and that conduit. Have you ever considered controlling two types of nano bots? I was thinking you could control the ones you're using right now to form that massive gun of yours, and use a prototype I've been working on. They're nano bots that can release a massive amount of energy, and you can use it as a kind of ammo."

Xavier scratched the back of his head. "Alright what about you. Are you going to be getting cybernetic enhancements?"

"Not quite, but I do plan on doing something about my fleshy bits. Let's just say it's a little bit inspired by what you've got going on." Eren responded.

* * *

Markus stood there in the gym admiring his partner. Beside him was Aiden and Fritz. All three of them were at awe of Maria. With her skin tight running gear her body was quite attractive. Markus had gone to life some weights which actually just ended up being his conduits with added weight to them.

Aiden scratched the back of his head. "Hey Fritz bud. There any girls you got your eye on?"

Fritz let off a bright grin. "Mreow, what a sudden question. Nyeow ya see as of this meowment I don't really have a special glint in my eye for anyone. How about you?"

Aiden let off a soft blush. "It's purely physical looks, but Wendy ain't that bad, you could say Wendooy get to ask her out?"

"Meow that was nearly as bad as some of your food puns." Fritz said.

"You could say it was a mis steak" Aiden laughed.

"Puns aside, do you plan on asking her out?" Fritz asked.

"I don't know. I'm sure you probably know the issues with dating a zorua. One of the most monogamic species out there. They choose their partners very carefully, it's straight up wired into their brains." Aiden said.

* * *

Wendy's body was covered in sweat, and for the first time in a very long time she was completely exhausted. Justin was putting her through the wringer, and she was moving her body in ways she didn't know how to move. She was using a whole new technique for her punches, kicks and even sword swings. Her drill consisted of a high kick, medium kick and a low kick with one leg, then switch to her other leg, and repeat. Once she was finished those kicks it was then followed up with two straight kicks each leg. Then it was a punch and dodge session with Justin who had some pads on his hand. They had been at this for a good few hours and Wendy felt as if she was about to pass out. Justin did catch onto this and decided that it was time for them to wrap up.

"Just today you've already caught up quite a bit." Justin said.

Wendy chugged her water and took in several deep breaths. "If I play sports for this long I don't get this tired. I can't remember the last time I was this tired."

Justin let off a soft chuckle. "It's only natural. You're probably using muscles in your body that you've never used before. We've also been training for around eight hours now. I... I've been thinking about something. Winston while he's a good guy and all I don't think he's the right partner for you and I don't think Coraline is the right partner for me either. What I'm trying to say is would you like to trade partners with me and be on a team with me?"

There was a soft blush on Wendy's face. She could feel her own heart quicken in pace and she didn't quite now why. "S-sure... we should ask our partners first though." These were the few words she could muster, but she didn't know why Justin's words rung so soundly in her ears.

The two of them walked up to Winston and Coraline who were deep in a conversation with each other. Justin was too shy to break their investment in each other, but Wendy didn't have such worries. She walked up to Winston and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Winston, Justin and I have something we'd like to ask. It's pretty serious so I hope you don't mind listening." Wendy said.

"Y-yeah sure, but before you start Coraline and I also have something pretty important we'd like to say. It's about our teams. We'd like to switch it to Coraline and I. It's not that I don't like you, and I'm not saying that I don't want to be your friend at all. Uh... I'm really sorry if this hurts your feelings, but it's not so much a friend thing as it is a competition thing. That isn't to say that I don't think you're a competent fighter no not that at all. It's just that—" Winston said before he was cut off.

Wendy couldn't stop chuckling. "Winston, it's fine! Justin and I were going to ask the same thing Don't worry we'll always be friends, after all you're such a sweet guy!"

There was a wave of relief that washed over Winston as he scratched the back of his head. "Ha ha ha thanks!"

Wendy and Justin soon continued their break. It was just some small talk and few jabs at each other's personality. Wendy was far too exhausted for a long conversation despite her wanting to have one with him. It might have also been the fact that they didn't have a good topic to start a massive conversation. But there was something on Justin's mind that could spark it.

Justin took in a deep breath and inched closer to Wendy. "I have just a bit of a question for you."

Wendy inched ever so closer to Justin. "Uh... sure what is it?" She awaited his question like a dog waits for a treat. She had spent the whole day with him, and for some reason she felt as if this question might be special in some way.

"In battle how come you never use illusions? You are a Zorua, is it a personal choice?" Justin asked.

The warmth in Wendy's cheeks soon dissipated into a nervous blush. She gave off a weak smile. This was something she hoped no one would ask, and it was something she planned on never telling anyone, but for some reason she felt compelled to let Justin know about her little secret. "I... I can't do them."

Justin was slightly taken back by Wendy's response. He couldn't tell if Wendy was joking, she was able to form weapons out of thin air naturally which was a technique that only a few pros could pull off and some rare pokemorphs, but not being able to form illusions was extremely odd. He couldn't believe that Wendy said she can't do the one thing that was supposed to be as natural as breathing for her species. "A-are you being serious?"

She took in a deep breath "I don't like talking about it..." She curled up her legs and wrapped her arm around them. Despite what she said, she still felt like it was right to tell him, "when I was growing up, my uncle tried his best to show me how to make illusions, but growing up it's always been one of those things I've never been able to do. How do you teach a zorua how to make illusions when it's just supposed to be something natural to us."

There was a pit in Justin's stomach. He could tell how upset his partner was and he didn't really know how to react to this situation, but in the end he chose to be genuine about it. "I... didn't know. If you don't want to talk about it anymore then we can move onto something else." Justin said.

"It's already getting a bit late. I won't be able to catch my bus, would be alright if I crash at your place Justin?" Wendy asked.

"Sure, it doesn't really matter to me. It's going to be messy as I live by myself, but you're more than welcome to stay. Let's start walking there then?" Justin said.

"Make sure you stay close alright." Wendy said.

That one line sent a shiver up Justin's spine confirming something in his mind that he wanted to feel. "Don't worry I will."

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Alright so here's the thing, I don't really know how good this chapter was it was literally made on a really crappy plane flight. So I hope it wasn't too bad. Anyway I must give credit to where credit is due. The new character has been introduced like usual give your thoughts on the chapter as a whole or even all the individual parts of the chapter!

Christina Star(Winston's Sister) created by " **Lizzy2K** "

Fun character and fun relationships that's all I have to say.

Also this is a message to everyone reading, be sure to look out for the story that I will be co writing with Lizzy2k and Xander46. The story will be posted on Lizzy's profile, I don't want to give out what it's about as I will wait for Lizzy's say in the decision. But be sure to look out for it ok! All three of us are working hard to get chapter 1 right.

See you guys in the next chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

It had been a few hours after her training with Winston, and Wendy now found herself walking behind with Justin. She couldn't find it in herself to be walking side by side with him, wether it was her just being shyer than usual or simply tired from a full day of training. She couldn't figure out why she got this odd feeling in her stomach and chest every time Justin would occasionally look back at her to make sure she was keeping up. It made her cheeks so warm and she wasn't sure how to process how it felt.

It wasn't long until Wendy found herself in front of a tall brick building much like every building in the city. However this was where Justin lived, they took the elevator up, and walked to his front door. His apartment was stationed at the number 202 which also just so happened to be on the top floor of the building. On the other side of the door Wendy didn't hear much of anything, it was extremely quiet. She looked carefully as Justin pulled out a key from his pocket and slowly inserted it into the door.

He slowly pushed the door to reveal a very small apartment. Off to the right was a kitchen with a ton of messy dishes piled up in the sink, and straight ahead was a large window that had the curtains completely blocking out the view outside. Looking to the left was a decent sized tv which had two game consoles hooked up to it, and a single bed. Wendy knew that Justin was around the same age as her, but this came as odd, how did him and his family live in such tight conditions.

"Justin, how do you and your family stay here? It's so small," Wendy said.

Justin looked at Wendy and scratched the back of his head. "I... actually live alone. I pay rent through jobs that I work around the city and a combination of saved funds that I got from grandma. You can have a seat on my bed or the floor, make yourself at home! I don't have much to eat so I hope you don't mind instant noodles with some basic toppings."

Wendy sat on Justin's bed and felt that it was basically rock hard. There were a few springs that poked out the side of the bed, but the middle and the left side of it seemed to be ok. "Justin, where are your parents?"

There was a weak smile on Justin's face as he was starting to boil water on his stove. "Who knows, I've been wondering that ever since I was little. But hey that's for another time. So you want fish, chicken or beef?"

"Wait Justin... h-how... why are you going into professional fighting as a career choice then?

Y-you should be..." Wendy said. She could feel a massive pit growing in her chest. It pained similar to that of muscle soreness. She looked back at Justin and worried at realizing how dire his position might be.

"Uh... well I know I could probably make a ton of money by actually going to a school, then getting whisked away to college then after that find some sort of job or payed co-op, but it doesn't really excite me the way fighting does." He took a look inside of his noodle cabinet. "So it turns out I'm all out of my flavouring packs for beef and fish, so we're going to have to eat chicken flavoured instant noodles."

"Justin, would you forget about the food for just a few minutes. I... I shouldn't be your partner then! You need to pair up with someone who can actually help you towards your goal! Winning the Vital Tournament would be huge for you Justin! I-I don't want to be the one who drags you down because I know that I'm an incompetent fighter!"

Justin had just finished putting the final touches on their meal. He walked over to Wendy and handed her the simple bowl of soup. "I know it's not much, but I hope you enjoy. Also don't worry about being bad at fighting. I chose you for a reason."

Wendy took a sip of her soup. "I'm just worried. I've realized how bad I am at fighting, and now you're in this state." She soon found herself being caught up in her own words. "I'm worried, because I... I... I want to... be... friends with you."

There was a big bright smile on Justin's face that made Wendy blush. "That's awesome! Cause I also want to be really good friends with you!"

When the two of them finished up their meals Justin ended up just putting everything in the sink to soak in some soap water. "Don't worry about it too much Wendy. Why don't we have a battle tomorrow for the first time as a team."

"Alright!" Wendy weakly smiled.

* * *

It was the following day, and just like Justin had said both he and Wendy volunteered for today's practice fight. It was decided that their opponents were to be Yajima and Asteria, arguably one of the strongest teams in the entire class. Wendy was quite nervous for the fight and she was confident that a single day of new training lessons would be enough. Justin gave her a little pep talk before the fight telling her that he'd have her back, but she didn't even know what kind of combos or move to pull to help him out. He didn't even give her any sort of plan either on how they planned on taking out their opponents. She could hear Winston, Coraline, Markus and Maria cheering her on, but it was drowned out by how nervous she was.

She stood up tall and was shaking in her shoes when both Asteria and Yajima stared her down. She was on the front line and Justin was to be ranged support. She readied her stance, but nervously formed two knifes out of thin air.

"Wendy! It's going to be fine! I have your back so please trust me!" Justin yelled.

Wendy bit the bottom of her lip, she didn't know why but Justin simply asking for him to trust her put her slightly at ease. "Alright! I'll try not to let you down!"

Yajima stood there with his arms crossed. He looked back at Asteria then gave a unholy glare towards Wendy and Justin. "The two of you better give it your 100% or else Freckles and I's training will be for nothing! We want an absolute victory you here me!"

Asteria smiled. "Yup what he said!"

The two teams looked towards Mr Alan who was clearly too tired for today. He slowly raised his hand signaling for the teams to start the fight. "3... 2... 1... FIGHT!"

Yajima instantly stiffened up and his hands glowed with a bright white light. He leaped off of one foot, and the speed given to him with mach punch was way too fast for Wendy to see. The next thing she knew was Yajima was right underneath her, she could see the burning passion in his eyes, and it send her heart into a spiral of fear, she tried to avoid the hit quickly leaning back. She bit the bottom of her lip. His whole movement was in complete slow motion for her, but despite that she knew there was no way she could even possibly avoid the attack.

As Yajima landed the hit the resulting impact sounded like a gun shot, but surprisingly Yajima had missed the attack, not by his own want, but because someone had completely redirected it. "Hey! Dark rings! Don't fire off little embers from the back if you want to fight me, fight me like a man! Freckles hit that ember bastard with everything you've got! Keep him off of me!"

"Ugh! You don't have to call me that you know!" Asteria, raised her staff up high, it was a long metal staff with a red gem at the very tip. It glowed with a brilliant ruby light as the air around it began to heat up. "FIRE BLAST!"

Wendy leaped back, away from Yajima in the distraction, she looked back at Justin who was surprisingly keeping up with a wall of Fire Blasts being fired towards him. She focused on the battle ahead of her, and it was clear that Yajima had the upper hand, she tried her best to dodge the attacks, but Yajima's pure flurry and onslaught was more than she could manage. Every time she would block her face it was met with a quick feint then a powerful mach punch to the stomach, and each time Wendy would block her core Yajima had a counter for it as well.

Each hit from Yajima was painful, it felt similar to when Justin hit her in practice. She could feel the bruises forming, and she knew that she'd be in trouble if this continued on. She fell on her back lifting up on her arm doing a backflip to avoid Yajima's onslaught. She looked him the eye and quickly formed a single blade, she leaped off one foot and lunged towards him. She was fast, like extremely fast, but it was a head on attack and Yajima saw right through it. His fists were covered in flames as he quickly knocked Wendy down. As Wendy hit the ground it knocked the wind right out of her, and made her vision blurry, but she knew she couldn't give up now. She clenched her fist and pressed it into the ground. She knew that Yajima could knock her down at any moment, so she tried to get up as quickly as possible.

She slowly pushed herself off of the ground, this fight may have been quick, but even so she was already out of breath. She wiped off her mouth. "Is that all you got?"

Yajima smiled. "Alright Blotches, if you want a real fight I'll give it to you!"

Asteria was a special case when it came to firing off attacks. Her constant wall of Fire Blasts were proving trouble for Justin. He needed to get to Wendy and protect her or else his plan would fail.

He didn't have the option of dodging the Fire Blasts as Asteria would control the direction using Extrasensory, so he knew repelling them would be the only way. For most them he resulted to countering with an equally strong attack, but it was strenuous on his body. Would he have to use it, was it too early to engage his plan, those were thoughts running through his mind, and he wasn't sure what to do. He looked over and his heart dropped when he saw Wendy getting tossed around like a rag doll, he tried to fire off an ember to help her out, but Asteria didn't leave him enough room for such an option.

He was running thin on time, and it was clear to him that he'd have to pull out his two secret weapons. "Wendy hold on for just a bit longer alright! If I sound cold please ignore it, I have to be that way for this to work!"

Wendy gave Justin a simple nod as it would be too much to talk. Justin looked forward and stared Asteria right in the eye. He leaped back, and his arms were surrounded in a bright blue energy which began to collect in the palms of his hand. Once many of the orbs had formed in his hand he threw them all in different directions allowing them to bounce every where. He bit the bottom of his lip as forming the orbs burned his dark rings with immense pain. His body began to glow with a bright red light while he kept forming more blue orbs in his hand.

He began to run towards Asteria who had still been firing off Fire Blasts towards his direction, this time Justin didn't even try to block the attack it was if the attack completely avoided him by slitting in half before it could even touch him.

 _"Huh?! What's going on!"_ Asteria focused a bit more making each Fire Blast stronger than the last. But no matter what happened it seemed that the attack itself was trying to avoid Justin, she couldn't figure out what was going on.

Yajima ignored his fight with Wendy leaving her alone to protect Asteria. But the orbs that Justin had fired off earlier had soon bounced to where he predicted that Yajima would move to completely walling him out. When the orbs clashed with Yajima's body he screamed out in pain, the pain of each orb was more than he imagined it to be, and soon realized what kind of attack Justin was using. "Freckles! Get out of there now! That ember firing bastard is using Hidden Power Water!"

Yajima's words couldn't get to Asteria in time. The orbs bounced off the wall behind her pelting her with a massive array of water orbs. Justin leaped up into the air and slammed on more orb on her head knocking completely out cold. He landed on the ground with steam coming off of his body, he was clearly in pain, but that didn't matter he had completed his objective.

"Hey, Justin, that stings. You'll pay for hurting her! Tell me how you're dispersing fire like that! I've been working hard with Freckles to where she could cast Fire Blasts repeatedly without major repercussions." Yajima said.

Justin took in a deep breath. "You're a smart guy try and figure it out." His arms were surrounded by many blue orbs. He once again fired them off in many different directions causing them to bounce. "Wendy keep Yajima off of me!"

Wendy nodded and formed a single katana Wendy charged in completely forgetting about her training, but as she ran forward many orbs came in from behind her and slammed right into Yajima making him scream out in pain. Had Justin predicted that she would forget her training and just charged right in, well it didn't matter right now, she simply had to put trust in her partner, with the quick opening Wendy for the first time since joining the school managed to get a good slice in.

Yajima's skin burned from the pain of Justin's attack, and Wendy's hit was quite strong making him stager a little bit. His fists soon became engulfed in flames, but the flames to his dismay instantly disappeared for some odd reason, he didn't know how Justin was doing it, but he did realize that it was quite troublesome.

Yajima soon readied his stance. His body erupted into a pillar of flames as he activated his Osia. The surrounding air became increasingly hot, waves of energy and heat blasted outward, and Wendy had to cover her face from the overwhelming heat. Justin stood there, the steam was still coming off of his body and he looked to be in deep pain.

"Wendy, I chose you for a reason. Don't forget that, but I'm here to show everyone why I am the strongest fighter here!" Justin slowly walked towards Yajima who's power was only rising, there was a deep fiery passion in his.

There was a light white glow surrounding Justin's body, and Wendy stood there in awe as what began to happen right before her was unimaginable, as Justin walked closer to Yajima, Yajima's flames were completely disappearing. She could feel exactly what was happening all the heat, and all the power Yajima was producing was being completely nullified by Justin's aura. It was as if he was a god among men in that very moment.

"I've seen how you fight, and while your technique is by far the best out of anyone here, you still rely on pure primal instincts to fight. I will never lose to someone like that!" Justin yelled.

"Good!" Yajima yelled.

The ground underneath both Wendy and Justin began to crumble, and the two of them instantly lost their footing. Yajima instantly charged in with both fists completely charged up, he slammed his fist right into Justin's stomach, then grabbed onto his head slamming him down into the ground, knocking him completely out.

He soon leaped off of him and did a full round house kick smacking Wendy right in the head knocking her down as well. "I'm not all instincts, I had a plan from the very start and Freckles firing off Fire Blasts from the very start was a part of it. I had her aim some at the ground with a different temperature to destabilize the ground, I counted the timing in my head and waited for the right time to strike."

* * *

It was the end of the day, Wendy and Justin sat on the stairs of the school. The two of them had a water bottle in their hand, and both of them were disappointed with their result from the final battle. However disappointment wasn't the only thing on their minds, in fact they were still quite happy they were able to work together.

"Sorry, I tried way too hard to look cool back there. I the end I only failed to be a successful partner for you." Justin said.

Wendy curled up her legs. "No it's my fault. I froze too much that fight, but it was fun fighting along side you for once."

There was a small chuckle between them. "Yeah, I guess it was pretty fun."

Wendy's vision slowly became blurry, and soon followed tears flowing down her face. She wasn't sure what made her cry, maybe it was the realization that she wasn't as good at fighting as she thought she was, or maybe it was the loss she had today. Either way it did feel nice having her partner hold her tight despite the fact that he too was crying like a baby.

* * *

 **Author Note:** Alright sorry for such the short chapter! But I really wanted to write this chapter as it is important to develop my characters. So tell me your thoughts on the chapter like usual!

Also btw there's a link to Lizzy and Xander's story on my FF bio. So please be sure to check it out!


	10. Chapter 10

**Author Notes:** Guess what! More OC's yay! Also so sorry for the lack of updates that have been happening, on top of serious writers block, I have college coming up which has been stressing me out lol. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

* * *

There was a dark underground dojo which sat within the depths of Jasper. Within it was a child all he could see were the tears streaming down his face, all he could hear were the screams and demands of his guardian. His sense of smell was impaired by the blood that seeped into the floor.

With tears streaming down his face he clenched his fist and bit down on the bottom of his lip and looked up at the face he knew as his mother. "I HATE YOU! I FUCKING HATE YOU!" Fear soon sunk into his heart as the angry woman slowly raised her sword, she quickly swung down.

"AHHH!" Eren sat up in his bed covered in a cold sweat, and tears in his eyes. His breaths were short but deep at the same time. He clenched his blanket in his hand as he felt a sharp shiver up his entire spine. His eyes darted around his room and the sun peering through his window was a comforting sign. "It was only a dream." He said, but he still had to wipe away the tears dripping down his face.

* * *

Eren was sitting in class, he was listening in on a speech for techniques from Mr Alan. However his mind wasn't really into the whole thing as one he saw it as unnecessary, and secondly he was still rattled by the dream he had last night. He played with a few of the nano bots in his hand making them flow over his skin like water or similar to a kind of putty. He let out a loud sigh and looked towards Mr Alan who had a few things to announce.

"Alright, listen up. With the Vital Tournament right around the corner that means some students from other schools are preemptively visiting Vexal to check out the competition. Some of them are even here to learn with us for the following months. Personally I'm surprised these four even decided to join this school, would all of you introduce yourselves please?"

The first person to walk out was a male Empoleon who stood at around 5'11". He had snow white hair which was shaved down at the sides but was kept long on the top then styled to be swept over to the side. He had bright golden eyes and on his forehead was the signature crest of his species. He was well built for battle, and his clothing was quite rich to say the least. It was obvious to anyone from Aether, but to the other students he simply looked like a pretentious rich kid.

"It is truly a pleasure of mine to be visiting such a fine establishment. My name is Vallehein Lumbur Rouke. I am the 4th prince to the throne of Aether for those of you whom did not know."

This had come across as a shock to many of the students sitting there, and it did surprise Eren quite a bit as the prince was still carrying the weapon his father had made. Right beside the prince was a cute espeon girl, he didn't recognize her at all, but it did happen so often that their eyes did occasionally meet. She had a nice body that was for sure, but her soft round face was by far her most appealing aspect. She had short black hair that fell to about her chin. She had soft faded blue eyes and some pale skin. Her button nose was quite cute and her smile was adorable. On top of her head were the signature espeon ears and in the middle of her forehead was a small red orb. For clothes she had a loose red top over a white button up blouse which had been tucked into her knee length black skirt. She also had some light grey leggings with a pair of black and white running shoes.

She took a bow of respect which caught the eye of the prince. "My name is Lilliana, I am the royal assistant to prince Vallehein. I hope that I can become friends with all of you!"

To the other side of Mr Alan stood two representatives from Tsu. The first one was a young maiden who was a Zoroark pokemorph. Her overall look was the staple Zoroark pokemorph, with long black hair that at the tips were deep red, her hair did end up reaching to be at about the base of her back which had been tied up with a hairband. Her eyes were bright red, and she gave off a bright smile that had a burning intimidation to it. She was on the lean side, but that didn't really matter. Her clothes seemed old and tattered which consisted of a faded red shirt which had a few blotches of dust and dirt. Her black jeans were much in the same condition along with black and white converse shoes. Although over her shoulders was a rough fitting jacket which was in quite good condition.

She waved to the students watching her. "Heya! Name's Mia."

Standing beside Mia was a Lucario pokemorph. He had short ghostly grey hair, his thuggish look gave off a certain type of feel, which was amplified by his bright red eyes. He was quiet lean but some of his muscles could be seen through his clothing. On top of his head were the signature Lucario ears, and at the base of his back was a tail. He wore simple yellow shirt with a black jacket over it. He some jean shorts and a pair of red and white running shoes.

He looked away from the students and waved his hand without saying a word. That's when Mia jumped in and said. "Don't mind him! His name is Kaito!"

* * *

Eren sat down at his usual table alone, while Xavier was his partner, he never hung out with him casually. It never really bothered him, but Eren did wonder if he'd ever make any friends. He looked around the whole cafeteria, it was the usual groups hanging out. However this time around one of the girls that were introduced this morning had come up to him.

It was the young Espeon, she held both of her hands together. "Eren... is that you?"

Eren looked up from his food slowly meeting her eye to eye. "Uh... do we know each other? I'm not sure if I'm personal friends with anyone associated with the royal family."

Lilliana slammed her hands on the table. "What! How can you not recognize me! You're so mean! It's me!" She put her hands to her chin and thought for a quick second. "You know what never mind! I'm going to go talk to a few others in the class, but I'll see you around ok! Just try to remember me!"

Eren sat there confused, he had thoughts on who the girl might be, growing up he didn't have many friends. He didn't enjoy his life in Jasper or living with his father in Aether. He did make a few friends in Aether, but none that he thought as being significant enough to remember.

* * *

Lilliana had gathered up all the girls at a table, some of them were happy to be there and some were there by force. The air of the table was quite awkward as no one knew what to talk about. Maria sat there with a milkshake in hand, Coraline had an ice tea, while Asteria, and Wendy had some water.

The following conversation went along the lines of recent fashion trends, and what kinds of foods they enjoyed. As it turned out none of them really had a job except for Lilliana, and that soon became the focus of the conversation.

"Really? So how'd you get out of there alive?" Maria asked.

Lilliana placed her hand on her chin. "I had a really powerful guy help me out. He was an aegislash who was quite proficient in using a conduit that before was really unique in Aether at the time."

"So what about you girls! Do any of you have a crush on a special someone? There's already a guy in your class that I have my eye on, but I'd like to know who your special someone is!" Lilliana excitedly said. "Maria you seem calm and collected anyone that makes your heart throb? How about you, Coraline, you seem like a cute girl does anyone catch your eye. Of course I'm also going to ask you two don't you start to think I'm leaving both of you out of this!"

There was a bright blush across Maria's face. "I... I'll talk if all of you promise not to tell him. Lilliana, if you look at the table where all the guys are sitting, you see that broad shouldered Garchomp... he's not bad I guess."

This instantly turned the heads of all the girls sitting in the table. It was the first time anyone had seen this side of Wendy. "OH MY GOSH! Maria that's so cute! Yeah I'd have to agree Markus isn't that bad, he's quite pleasing to the eye!"

Asteria turned her head. "Markus is quite handsome, I wouldn't mind dating him, but other than that I don't really have feelings for anyone. None of them are really my type. I might consider dating someone like Eren if he socialized more or Aiden, but I haven't really gotten to know him better. What about you Coraline, you're blushing like crazy."

Coraline stumbled over her words as she looked at Wendy. "W-Wendy... I have a crush on Justin and Winston! But I think I like Justin more! I know you're Justin's battle partner so please what ever you do don't tell him!"

* * *

Much like the girls the guys had gathered at the table with a surprise appearance from Yajima who was usually in the gym or hanging out with Asteria. They for the most part talked about their excitement for the tournament but for some reason Winston took the conversation to the direction about their crushes.

In a joking manner Winston laughed out. "So who's the hottest girl in class?"

Winston got a few light punches in the arm from some of the guys. Markus laughed along. "Ha ha I don't mind Coraline there's some serious appeal to that girl! You're a pretty lucky guy being her battle partner."

Aiden sat there stretching his arms. "So besides you know the obvious choice which is Markus' partner, Asteria is pretty cute. I'm sure there's more to her than that icy persona she has. I wouldn't mind sticking it in if you know what I mean."

Yajima turned his head. "You better be joking smart ass."

Justin pulled out his note book and turned it to the rest of the guys. "Look if we're talking completely by appearances Maira and Asteria take the cake, but personally Maria by far is the top of my list. Then Coraline, I'd love to date her if I could, she's incredibly cute. But the girls I'd but under completely and utterly under undateable would be Wendy and Asteria."

"Ouch you're own partner dude!" Aiden said.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Hey guys so really sorry about not updating for 2 weeks, really had trouble with writers block, and I'm sure the length of this short chapter shows for it. Anyway I'm not sure when the next chapter will be coming as College is right around the corner, and I'm not sure how much time I will have to work on the story.

If any of you have anything that you would like to see in future chapters I'd love to know, maybe I might take your suggestion and make it a reality.

Oh also I always have to give credit where credit is due. Mia and Kaito were created by " **Mara the Wolf.** "

There was an under representation of people from Tsu so these two were perfect coming from a background that I could build upon. I saw a lot of potential in these characters and wanted to add them in.

Lilliana and Vallehein pre planned characters that were mean't to be added from the start.

Anyway see you guys in the next chapter!


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note:** Hey guys FireFoxDriver here!

This is an update on what's been going on just incase you have not seen my Author's Page. It is official all the OC slots have been filled up. I can no longer reasonably add anymore characters to the story, we are at MAX capacity! I am really so grateful for all the support that you guys have given me with writing this story. It is more than I could have ever hoped for. I've never had a story that has had consistent views from the previous chapter and it's incredibly I really thank all of you that!

I'm here to tell you that I am really sorry about not updating. The story is not dead and chapter 12&13 are in the works, it's just been a handful to balance all the characters in the story. I never expected for this story to be so much work, but I am enjoying the challenge. Updates will still take a bit longer as I have College and am I trying my best not to fall behind despite it being the beginning of the year.

Now Some Messages from my Betas or at least the betas I could get a hold of.

* * *

 **Xander46**

Outlining this story has been a god damn fucking nightmare let me tell you that. There are so many interesting characters, and Firefox is so fucking adamant of wanting to write every single chapter that it makes it so hard when we want to add either character development, relationship development or back story development.

I really hope you all appreciate the amount of effort it is to balance 16 main characters and 4 of them still have to be introduced. That isn't even including the side characters for the supporting role.

Either way thank you all, it has been quite rewarding to write this story with my best friend.

* * *

 **FireFoxDriver**

Alright back to me! Chapter 12 should be finished and posted either on September 14 or 15 See you guys then!


	12. Chapter 12

**Author Notes:** I tried to push for the next chapter and I made it come out two days early enjoy!

* * *

The bright sun poured into the dusty room of Justin's apartment slightly warming the air as it danced across the fabric of his bed. The sounds of light taps and gentle off beat snores filled the room with a calming atmosphere. In Justin's hands he tightly held his blanket, but more importantly there were a pair of small arms around his torso. He had remembered that Wendy crashed at his place last night. He slowly pried her arms off of him and looked at her and smiled at her calm tranquil face.

This had been happening for the past few days. It seemed as if Wendy was sharing a bed with him more and more. This mostly had to do with the fact that they had been training together a lot more in preparation for the tournament, but there was something odd to Justin with just how comfortable Wendy seemed to be with it all.

As Justin got up and left the bed he looked back and Wendy's sleeping body was looking around for him as it tried to hug the air. When she had realized Justin was gone she slowly began to wake up. There was a bright blush running across her cheeks, and when she made eye to eye contact with him, she instantly looked away.

"So should we head for breakfast? Or is there anything you want to do, it's the weekend." Justin smiled.

Wendy nervously smiled with a blush running across her cheeks. "Maybe a shower... with yo— Ah never mind!" She quickly shook her head. "I'll clean up a bit and we can head to breakfast."

The restaurant Justin and Wendy visited was a simple chain cafe to where they had practically become regulars. They sat at their usual table which was nothing more than a simple oak table with chairs made of the same material. They got the usual which were some bagels and a lemonade with two straws.

"Wendy, please let me pay for this. I can't let you constantly keep paying for all our meals. I have an expenses jar for this reason." Justin said.

Wendy smiled. "It's fine. I'd like to take you to my place today if that's alright. You know meet my uncle, he's been curious about you."

There was a bit of nervousness in Justin's voice, but he made an effort to make it sound confident. "Uh... yeah sure ok! Should I bring anything?"

Wendy thought on it. "Not really, my uncle would just like to meet you!"

Justin rubbed the back of his head. "A-Alright!"

The two of them headed back to Justin's apartment, he wanted to at least give Wendy's Uncle Steven a house warming gift. This would really be the first time he'd be invited to a girl's house, and he tried to hide how nervous he was. The gift happened to be a bag of fancy coffee grounds that Justin had received from a few of his relatives in Tsu. On the way out of the building there was a loud voice that called out to the both of them.

"Hey it's you two from that Vexal Combat School!"

Wendy and Justin turned around to see Mia and Kaito standing there. Mia had held Kaito by the wrist and practically dragged him there to meet up with the two of them. She had a bright smile which was odd for someone from Tsu, but Kaito on the other hand had the stereotypical expression that one would have coming from that kingdom.

"I never caught your names! Kaito and I are exploring the area trying to get some form of bearing on where we stand. That's when I spotted both of you! Do you happen to live here?" Mia asked.

Justin stepped in with confidence. "My name is Justin and I live here, but Wendy doesn't she lives out of the city and we're actually headed about you guys? Whereabouts are you guys being housed?"

"Hey that means we're neighbours! What apartment room are you?" Mia asked.

"202, how about you guys?" Justin said.

"We're actually a floor below you! Anyway you two look busy, but you should probably drop by! Maybe show us around!" Mia excitedly said.

"Sure thing!" Justin said.

Justin said his goodbyes to the two of them and soon headed with Wendy for a long bus ride to her Uncle's place. The bus ride was filled with conversation about Wendy's home town and many of the small charms of it, to Justin he was very nervous to be visiting such a small town where practically everyone knew each other, he had always lived in the city where no one knew each other.

"Sounds like it was a fun town. Are there really kids who just play in front of their house?" Justin asked.

Wendy's face lit up. "Of course! I could probably name them all too! There really aren't a lot of places to eat or hangout, so most of my friends back there really just tend to hang out at the park. We lay in the fields of grass and sometimes had mock battles."

Justin let out a soft giggle. "Maybe I could meet some of your friends!"

"Hee hee maybe! I haven't seen them in a while cause I've been training with you for a good amount of time now." Wendy saw the nervousness on Justin's face as her hometown was within viewing distance. "Don't worry my Uncle is a real softie, I've had friends at my place before he's kinda used to it."

Justin rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah what do I have to be afraid of."

* * *

When Wendy and Justin had gotten off of the bus it was late evening. The sun was now just starting to set, and now it was the reverse instead of Justin leading Wendy everywhere it was now Wendy leading him. The two of them walked side by side, Justin didn't notice it but Wendy had the brightest blush running from cheek to cheek. She couldn't explain it, the warmth in her face, the shiver down her spine and her heart beating out of control. Was she sick? If so, how come it felt so good, those were the thoughts running through her mind. Although there was one thing keep her mind off of. It was the little surprise she had for Justin.

* * *

The two of them soon made it to Wendy's house. The house was very large compared to Justin's tiny apartment, and walking inside it was clear the house was well kept compared to the mess that he was normally accustomed to.

"Steven I'm home!" Wendy yelled out.

A loud gruff voice could be heard from the kitchen. "Is your friend here? I'm making dinner."

Wendy walked into the living room and sat in the couch. Looking to the left was the kitchen. "Yeah, he's here."

Justin awkwardly walked to where Wendy was siting, and he soon laid his eyes on Steven. Steven was quite tall he was standing at around 6'3" He had large broad shoulders and had an air of lighthearted seriousness to him. His black suit was covered by a white apron. Looking at his head he had jet black hair, it was short for a Zoroark, but it was still tied up into a small wolf's tail. He had the same silver eyes that Wendy had, but facial structure and everything else was completely different.

Steven turned to face Justin. "So kid, you're my little girl's battle partner?"

Justin nervously stumbled over his words, but Steven could tell that he was genuine. "W-w-weel yeah! Uh... so I brought you a house warming gift!" He walked over and placed the bag of coffee grounds in Steven's hand.

"Heh, not bad kid. So you're studying at that school. Where you coming from? Wendy was born here, but I was raised in both Tsu and Jasper. Not much to say about those shit holes, but it was home for some time." Steven said.

"I was born in Tsu, but for as long as I can remember I've been here in Vexal. I was just a baby when I came here, so I'm not to sure how Tsu was. I also didn't really have a guardian to take care of me except my grandma who I lived with for around 5 years. She had to move back to Aether, anyway—"

"Woah woah kid you don't need to tell me about your whole life story. You're just here for dinner, and Wendy mentioned something about you moving in? What's that about. I mean there is a vacant room ready for you, as Wendy was so adamant about it."

Justin looked back in the living room and Wendy had the biggest blush, and the biggest smile he had ever seen.

"Surprise!" Wendy yelled.

"Wendy was tellin me about your situation. I already work very late into the night, and my job as an attorney pays well. I have more than enough to support you. What you say kid? You wanna live here?"

For the first time Justin's heart had skipped a beat. He was completely elated he didn't know what to say to her. He had tears running down his eyes. The burning feeling in his chest was too great, he slowly walked up to her in a teary mess. He tried to desperately wipe away his tears. "Can I have a hug?"

Wendy gave off a massive smile and dived at Justin wrapping her arms around him. "Welcome home!"

* * *

Off deep within the kingdom of Vexal stood a dimly lit room with a deep red carpet, and a large mahogany desk. There were no windows and the dim light came from an espeon who stood in the corner. Seated at the desk was an Aetherian prince who had one of his legs on top of the other and his fist lay firmly on his chin. Vallehein smiled with pleasure as what was laid across his desk pleased him very much.

From left to right were pictures of various pokemorphs. Lilliana disapproved of his actions but what kind of authority did she have over her prince. The pictures were of Wendy, and her alone. Each one was taken without her knowing, and she was the perfect candidate for what he had planned.

"Running the kingdom of Aether has the fourth prince is so boring don't you think? Why not have a little fun here." He licked his lips and slowly raised the picture up to his nose and giving it a slight whiff. "Anyway Lilliana how about we have some fun first, it's the only thing about you that isn't completely useless as a lowly assistant."

Lilliana was against the idea of spending another nigh with Vallehein, but it was in her contract to abide to any demand he had. She begrudgingly closed off her heart for the night and began to slowly take off the things covering her skin. As her shirt was about to come off the door slowly opened.

"Oh? Lorenzo... I knew you were in the area, but what brings you here?" Vallehein asked.

"I have a certain fucking Infernape that needs to be taught a lesson."

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Well what did you guys think of the chapter! It's a bit short, but it's all that I could come up with, with the current outline. I promise chapter 13 will be more exciting and there are only a few more chapters left until the start of the Vital Tournament so please be on the look out of that!

Like always thank you guys so much for the support and I'll see all of you in the next chapter!


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note:** Wow so I really didn't expect college to take up so much of my time! High school was a lot easier that's all I have to say. Anyway I'm really sorry about the long wait in between chapters, I know it's really bad for an SYOC story, but I really am trying my best. I really have to thank all of you for sticking around.

Anyway please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Asteria's body was drenched in sweat, she had just finished her workout with Yajima who once again like usual pushed far beyond her limit. She leaned and hugged the wall not because she wanted to, but because she needed to. Her muscles were way too sore, a single step sent powerful shivers up her legs, and she could barely keep her arms up. It was hard to breath as each breath hurt her core, and she didn't even know that it was possible for her butt muscles to be sore.

"Yajima is such a pain in the ass! The dance is almost in a few weeks and I won't be able to go if things keep going the way they are!" Asteria yelled.

She slowly turned the corner to find body bumping into something as hard as metal. The impact was enough to knock her down onto the floor. The fall hurt quite a bit as her muscles were extremely sore, and while sitting down she could barely support her upper body sitting up straight. She slowly looked up and saw a pair of bright yellow eyes. It was Aiden the short Scizor that she was at least 5 inches taller than.

"Hey watch where you're going!" Asteria yelled.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bump into ya like that." He extended his hand towards her.

Asteria turned her head away from Aiden. "What you think I'm helpless or something?"

Aiden sort of smiled. "No not really, it was just a friendly gesture. I've just noticed that you don't really seem to hang out with anyone. Would you like to sit at lunch with some of the guys and I? I understand if you don't want to, but it really seems like you're lonely."

"Humph I am not lonely! You're the one who's lonely!" She struggled to push herself off of the ground due to her sore muscles, and without permission Aiden helped her up.

"Try taking some Advil, it'll help ease the pain of sore muscles. I'll see you at lunch!" Aiden said as he walked away.

"Uhm I don't plan on going! It's not like I would like to anyways!" Asteria yelled. Despite what her words said, she was actually quite happy that Aiden had invited her to sit with him. Maybe she might sit at the table.

* * *

Wendy giggled with Justin as the two of them together had to do something quite scandalous. The two of them decided to skip school for the day. It was a very special day to the both of them, it was decided that they would have a serious sparring match to practice for the tournament. They had found an empty public battlefield to train on. This would be a fight for Justin to see how good a teacher he was, and for Wendy it would show her what all of her practice has been for. It would also be her chance to beat Justin in a one on one.

Justin stood on one end of the battlefield. "It's been about three months now? The tournament is just a few weeks away. Let's see how far you've come. Also don't even start to think that I'm going to go easy on you."

Wendy smiled. "I'm not going to be going easy on you either! I've been practicing outside of our training sessions so you better give it your all!" While Wendy was nervous about going toe to toe with Justin she was also very excited. Oddly enough she wasn't excited for the potential win at the end, she was more excited about getting the chance to impress Justin.

Justin got into his fighting stance, and his eyes locked dead on with Wendy's. He instantly began to think up of all the options that Wendy would go for. _"We've been training together all this time. No doubt she's going to go for a head on charge then switch her positioning to get in behind me. That's what we've been working on."_

Wendy readied her stance and summoned her blades, one in each hand. The blades were slightly larger than usual, but they were still the size of knives. _"Justin, I've been watching you, and I know how wonderful you are, but I also know how to beat you. Please notice me after this fight."_

"Alright Wendy so the rules are whoever gets pinned down for more than five seconds is the winner alright! I'm ready whenever you are!" Justin yelled.

Wendy let out a bright grin and dashed right towards Justin. Her body was loose, and not stiff in the slightest. She leaped off of one foot and quickly swung her blade at Justin's head. This was a massive surprise to him as he had only managed to make a split second block resulting the blade grazing the edges of his hair.

Justin jumped back to create some space. _"A head on charge?! She didn't change her direction has she learn't nothing?! Fine if that's the case then how about this."_ His wrists glowed with a brilliant light, he fired shots down at the ground, some of the embers were visible, but many of them weren't detectable by the naked eye. He had launched them in a way to stop any of Wendy's head on assaults. _"She should now start mixing up her attack pattern right?"_

As Wendy constantly charged in for a head on assault her body had gotten much more sensitive to the smaller things, so this time around she could feel the small invisible embers slowing her down a bit. She knew Justin loved to predict his opponents, limit their options, make it feel like an impossible fight in a one on one. But she knew now that this could lock him into a corner, she knew that Justin would be focusing on what they had been practicing, so for once she had the advantage.

She charged right in at Justin swinging away with the same exercises she practiced. Justin was on the defense, but it seemed he was casually deflecting any attempts. As Wendy would swing at his head, he would deflect the blow upwards and with each swing towards the torso her blade was caught between his hands. Each swing was getting stronger, and the sound of whisking wind was a clear indication of how much stronger Wendy had gotten with her technique.

She took one final swing and Justin put up his forearm to block the attack. The sword made direct contact with his arm completely shattering to pieces. He looked at the surprised expression on Wendy's face. He knew this was his chance to pin her down, he reached out, but as if the whole scene had turned to slow motion Wendy's surprised look turned into a bright smile. She formed two blades in one hand and threw them towards the ground, they bounced up high into the air. In that exact same moment Wendy grabbed Justin by the elbow, kneed him in the stomach, turned him around, and pushed him down on the ground. She placed her arm on his neck and sat right down on his torso, and while the whole motion finished up the two swords she threw up into the stabbed through his jacket pinning him down into the ground at his wrists.

Sweat was beating down Wendy's face, and the occasional drop landed on Justin's chest. She couldn't believe what had just happened, it was as if the world had gone into a stand still. Her plan worked? That was the thought running through her mind. She felt a lump of emotion welling up in her throat she wasn't able to talk, she was so elated.

Justin let out a sigh. "I can't believe I lost to my own trick. You used that surprised look on your face to bait out an unsafe option didn't you?"

Wendy was too happy to talk. There were tears in her eyes and a massive blush running across her face. She didn't realize that she had shifted her hips down to where Justin's hips were, but it didn't really matter.

It wasn't until Justin's words that she realized that this was her first ever win since coming to her new school. "Congrats on the win Wendy."

Her cute face had the brightest smile that ran from cheek to cheek. "Thank you so much! J-Justin! I-I... I have to tell you something ok!"

Justin was still on the ground with Wendy pinning him there. "Can I at least stand up first?"

Wendy clenched her hands on Justin's shirt as that exact same warmth in her cheeks began to rise. That exact same pounding in her heart beat, she needed to tell him how she felt. There was a massive lump in her throat. She was nervous, but she had to say something or else she felt that this feeling would never disappear.

"Justin... you make my heart beat so fast... a-and when we're close like this my cheeks feel so warm. It feels like I have butterflies in my stomach when I'm around you..." Wendy released her hands from Justin and got off of him. She covered her face, but the ears on top of her head were twitching. "I don't know why I feel this way, and why I get so nervous telling you... but that's just how I feel about you."

Justin stood up dumbfounded. "W-Wendy..." He knew what Wendy was experiencing because he had gone through it before. However he didn't feel the same way towards her, to him she was his best friend. He always considered her as someone to lean on to push him forward, but never as a. He quickly shook his head and got his it out of the clouds.

"I know what you're going through, but I can't give you a response until you find the words to say them. So how about it, should we go home?" Justin asked.

Wendy stayed silent staring at him, she couldn't move, and she didn't know why. Justin tried to move his own body as well, but he couldn't find it in him to start walking away from her. So he slowly walked towards her as he felt his own heart beat increase rapidly. There was a pull for him to do something crazy. He held her shoulders as the air around them began to slow and the scene had dissolved into nothing but bright stars.

Wendy wrapped her arms around Justin's waist pulling her slightly closer till their faces were inches apart. Justin had closed his eyes, but Wendy's were still wide open, she soon panicked and placed her hands on Justin's chest, pushing him away. Her face was bright red, her breaths were heavy and she didn't know why she did that. It was if her body became too nervous of what was about to happen.

"I... I... I don't... Justin I..." Wendy stuttered

Justin let off a soft giggle. "Hey! It's alright, I'm sorry for coming onto you the way I did. Let's go home! I'll make us some noodles!"

Wendy smiled feeling a little at peace in her chest. "Ok I'd like that."

* * *

Vallehein stood in front of a large mahogany table. There were many pieces of failed conduits and highly dangerous experimental ones. In front of him stood a large man that seemed to be fat, yet all that fat is hard as muscle. His head, while bald, seems to be a rounded missile, and all of his teeth appear to be canines. His skin seems moist but feels insanely. His eyes are blood red, and his neck, being incredibly thick, seemed to have gills. His hands were large. For clothes he ended up wearing a black suit with a white dress shirt. He had a half lit cigar in his mouth.

Vallehein took a sip of his scotch, "So? What did you think of Lilliana?"

Lorenzo took the cigar out of his mouth to blow out a big puff of translucent smoke. "Good for a young kid. Although she cries too much. Anyway what does the Aetherian prince have for me today? I something good there are some people that I need dead."

"Oh? Alright how about this one. I know you're going to like it!" Vallehein picked up what looked to to be a mini megaphone that was attached to the base of a gun and had a trigger much like that of a gun. "This baby will fire off sound waves that will instantly kill anyone it's pointed at. Of course it's more than likely to break on yeah cause my annoying older brother stopped the conduit's development."

"Give me something that'd kill an infernape slowly and painfully. Then we can get down to business." Lorenzo said.

Vallehein let off an eery laugh. "I think I know what you're looking for, but you might have to send one of your underlings to a specific school to get your hands on conduit that is guarded by a capable Aegislash."

"As long as I get my point across to that infernape I don't care what I have to do. He's going to pay for being a damn leech on my backside."

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Alright there you guys go! The chapter is completed. I really hope that you guys enjoyed it and I'm really sorry for the long wait.


	14. Chapter 14

Asteria had taken Aiden's advice and took some pain killers before coming to the cafeteria. Sure she was still sore, but at least she was able to move. She'd get to sit down and enjoy her food for once. However there was always this pit in her chest like something was missing from her life as a teenager. She didn't really have friends, sure she looked up to Yajima, but he was just too much for her.

She thought about her current thoughts on the guy. Of course he was good looking, and sure he was extremely passionate, but she felt that he went about it the wrong way. She let out a soft sigh and pondered on her thoughts. She eventually looked around the cafeteria taking notice at how most of her class were gone including the girls. She knew Yajima was still in the gym, but looking over at the table where the guys normally sit she found Aiden happily watching something on his phone.

She crossed her arms, and walked over to his table. "Look don't get the wrong idea! It's not like I want to sit with you or anything! You just happen to be the only person I know in here!"

Aiden showed off a bright grin. He placed his phone facedown on the table. "Ha ha you're really cute acting all angry like that!"

Asteria's face was bright red. "I'm not cute! If anything you're the cute one short stack! N-not saying that I think y-you're attractive at all! W-wait hold on no! I'm not trying to say you're ugly!"

Aiden laughed. "It's alright! I understand what you were trying to say. None of the guys are here or the girls so there are no rumors to spread. You can sit if you like! I'm as patient as steel is hard!"

Asteria sat down at the table across from Aiden, but not directly in front of him. She sat more along the lines of being across but off to the side of him. "So tell me, how far do you think you're gonna get in the tournament?"

Aiden tilted his head. "Not sure! Fritz and I don't really train together all that much anymore, and we barely have any form of synergy out fighting styles don't really seem to mesh well. For sure we're gonna finish first though!"

Aiden's response left her Asteria with an air of curiosity. "How do you even plan on coming in first place? You do realize that without good team synergy it's impossible to make it far."

Aiden's smile was bright, so bright that it sent shivers into Asteria's cheeks. "That's why I just have to give it 500%. What about you and Yajima, how far do you guys think you're going to get?"

Asteria sort of laughed as the image of Yajima screaming with a flamethrower coming out of his mouth popped into her head. "He wants to have an indisputable first place finish. Personally I'd be perfectly happy placing in the top five. It'd be a good way of feeling after the tournament since we do get a 3 month break after it all. Hey... uhm, I've been wondering where are you from? I've seen you in the gym and while most people of your species is from Tsu your training style is more similar to someone from Jasper."

"Oh that's because I am from Jasper! Pretty terrible place if you ask me!" Aiden laughed.

"Oh believe me I know. Just before coming to the school I had a little expedition there just to learn about the kingdom. It's so different from Vexal everything is solved through battle and brute strength. Although despite that the kingdom does have a nice charm to it, the seafood there is amazing!"

"How about I treat you to a Jasper seafood place! There's a really awesome one near here if you're down for it! Does tomorrow sound good to you?" Aiden asked.

"L-L-L-Like... a date?!" Asteria stuttered.

"No not really. It'll just be something as friends! You don't have to go if you don't want to!" Aiden smiled.

"I-I'm not totally against the idea! Humph maybe it's you who's too scared to go!" Asteria yelled.

"I'll take that as a yes then." Aiden said.

There was a thin blush on Asteria's face. "You better take me."

* * *

Another week had passed and there was just one week left before the Vital Tournament, however for entirety of this past week his partner had been completely absent from their usual lunch training sessions. This was a crucial time to be in the gym and he couldn't understand why Asteria would be gone every single lunch time. He sent her texts yelling at her to get in the gym, but eventually she ended up blocking his number. Then came the day he had enough, he stormed into the cafeteria to look for her.

For a guy like Yajima he had no qualms about going up to the girl's table. Sitting there was Blotches(Wendy), Skyscraper(Maria) and Sticks For Brains(Coraline). The only two missing were that good for nothing Espeon that the prince had around him all the time, and Freckles(Asteria).

"HEY! BLOTCHES! Where the hell is Freckles?!" Yajima yelled.

"For the last time Asshole my name is not BLOTCHES! And if you want to know where she is go find her yourself! Rumour around the school is she eats lunch on the roof." Wendy yelled.

"Blotches you and I know that's false! No one is allowed up there!" Yajima yelled. In his head there were only a few thoughts, but mainly he needed to find where his partner had run off to.

When Yajima had gone away the girls got back to what they were talking about. Wendy once again grew the brightest blush on the table. She twiddled her thumbs in her hand as each one of the girls increasingly inched closer to her.

* * *

Justin like usual was at Wendy's house training in the backyard. It was his standard drills, he did taking battling very seriously, but ever since Wendy won against him he had taken his training up to another level. He couldn't explain it but being stronger than Wendy, and being able to teach her what new things he learned filled him with pride.

Steven was keeping a close eye on the young blaziken's training regimen. He could tell the kid was dedicated to what he was doing, but he knew that being a fighter was a tough career to get into, and Justin's style was very specific. It was a highly specialized style that normally wouldn't work in a open battlefield. Steven knew well what kind of battlefields would appear in the Vital Tournament, the first few rounds would be great for Justin's ricochet style, as they had many obstacles. These obstacles went from water, forests, desserts, a mountainous region and an abandoned city. However as you progressed further in the tournament the battlefield became more basic eventually turning into a flat stage the ultimate test in skill.

Steven walked to the back grabbing Justin's water bottle and tossing it towards him "Hey Kid! You got a minute?"

Justin caught the bottle in one hand. His breathing was heavy. "Y-yeah... So what's up?"

"Your style. It's interesting you rely on limiting your opponent's options with a flurry of embers both visible and invisible. The embers you fire off are so refined that they are sometimes impossible to see even at night. However don't you think this is a pointless endeavour? Your style can only work at it's maximum potential in a battlefield with many obstacles. To me it doesn't seem like your end goal is the same as Wendy's." Steven said.

Justin took a quick sip of his water bottle. "You deserve to know. I mean you are taking care of me for the time being. Truth is... I don't plan on becoming a professional fighter at the end of this. It's also the reason my style is so specialized, I designed it to be used in an alley way or in a large crowd. I plan on becoming a Detective for the Nexal Police Department. I know how the Vital Tournament works, and I know my style will only weaken as it progresses, but if I can just place well enough that will get me closer to finding my parents."

Steven crossed his arms. "So what? You also plan on abandoning Wendy once you've finished the tournament, just like how your parents left you."

Justin's eyes went wide. "I... no I wasn't planning on leaving her."

Steven laughed. "Please you're a blaziken, abandonment is in your blood. You know the abandonment rate of your species is 70%. But that's fine, it's part of your instincts, just please be discrete when you break my niece's heart." He let out another soft sarcastic laugh. "Let's be honest here, you'll break her heart no matter what, us zoroarks are some of the most loyally bonded pokemorphs out there."

* * *

With preparation for the tournament completely finished there was only one event left for the students to experience. However do to time constraints the moonlight ball would not be happening the day before the tournament's opening ceremony, but after the tournament was finished. Of course this was cause for some uproar from many students across Hasenda, but it was a necessary step in the development in the kingdom's eyes. With that said see you in the Vital Tournament!

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Alright Firefoxdriver is here boys! Finally finally I get a small break in my busy schedule to write again! This story might be skipping over the moonlight ball slightly, but I feel like personalities will be more developed after a tournament than before, so in the end it was my decision to write the ball after the VT. Hope you guys don't mind really sorry about that!

Like all the battles I write, there is no such thing as plot armour! Each fight will be analyzed by me and my beta to make sure that they seem fair and just. I really hope you guys feel the same way about it all. But if you feel salty about your character losing please feel free to voice it! I live for that stuff!

With that said I hope you guys enjoy the chapters that are going to be coming out!


	15. Chapter 15

The Vexal Sun had crept its way above the horizon shining its rays down on the fresh new arena which was to be the battlegrounds for the Vital Tournament. Just outside the arena were ticket booths and many long lines. The surrounding area had air ships coming from the four different kingdoms. The arena itself was outlined by the national flags of each of the kingdoms with their respective capitol flags. These flags blew proudly in the wind, but the flag that showed the most personality this year around happened to be Vexal, after all the tournament was being held in the kingdom itself.

Other than the long lines leading into the area was a fairgrounds filled with pop up rides, a variety of free entertainment and of course the classic food booths. It was here that Wendy, Justin, Winston, Coraline, Maria and Markus had all gathered up. It had been awhile since the whole gang had hung out since they had all been working hard for the tournament which was about to start within a few hours.

The six of them were at a great udon place recommended to them it was slightly overpriced, but each one of them had their own bowl with the exception of Wendy and Justin who agreed to share one. Looking around them the crowds slowly grew larger and the sounds of both children and adults enjoying their time increased. It was nice to hear different languages being spoken and different accents from the other kingdoms for once. It brought an air of unity to the area.

However that unifying sound was completely drowned out by the sound of slurping udon noddles. The sound was mainly coming from Wendy and Markus, while Maria, Winston, Coraline and Maria had been politely eating theirs. Justin had just been sitting there getting a few bites in when he could. He did smile at seeing Wendy's cheeks completely round as she continued to stuff her face.

"Geez Wendy, make sure you don't choke..." Justin nervously laughed. He picked up his chopsticks and picked up a few more noodles placing them in his mouth.

Wendy looked towards him. She forced the noodles down her throat soon pounding her chest. "Mmmm! These are so good!"

Justin, Maria, Winston and Coraline all looked over at Markus who had seriously just finished his third bowl. Maria soon spoke up. "Markus, I swear you've had more noodles than you weigh."

With a full mouth Markus mumbled. "I can't fight with an empty stomach!"

Winston let out a sigh. "Don't sweat it too much Maria. It's how everyone from Jasper eats."

Everyone had finished their food and they all soon headed into the arena as the tournament was about to start. The once empty arena was now completely packed with citizens of each kingdom. Down where the fighters were supposed to battle was a large floating stage. On the stage stood Nexal's representative the king himself.

He was a tall Pyroar with a mighty fiery mane he was dawned in an thick red robe outline with fiery fur produced by his own might. He had a microphone in his hand and his voice thick, deep but heavily inspiring to those who heard it.

"Hello citizens of Vexal, Tsu, Jasper and Aether! Welcome to the 60th Vital Tournament a tournament that decides the future for many fighters and is the representation of the peace we forever hold between our kingdoms. Wether it be the elegance of Tsu or the raw power of Jasper which takes this tournament's victory it will surely be a battle for the ages! Wether you come from a family filled to the brim in riches or come from humble beginnings none of that matters here. What matters is your skill on the battlefield and your perseverance to prevail in all the challenges that await you. I wish the best of luck to all our competitors in the their endeavours and may the Legends have their mercy graced upon you!"

With that said the King of Vexal soon walked back into the arena as the crowd roared in excitement. Many students in the tournament were giddy with excitement while others were soon figuring out that maybe fighting wasn't the career for them. Despite that the first match was about to start and each one of the people in the waiting room carefully watched the monitor to see what their competition was like.

* * *

"Wow what a matchup to start off the Vital Tournament! What do you say Robert! In the blue corner we have team Malware comprised of Eren Kragg and Xavier Slaatern. However Eren will be fighting against two opponents for today as Xavier has refused to fight in what is essentially a qualifier round. You got to give it to the kid for agreeing to 2 vs 1!"

"You're certainly right about that Francis! Over in the red corner is actually a team formed by two students who come from two different schools! Moria Armstrong, a young girl hailing from the kingdom of Aether and Xander Photysiks a powerful Noivern who comes from the powerhouse of a kingdom that is Jasper!"

* * *

 **15 Minutes Earlier**

* * *

Xavier scratched his chin. "Sounds like you're being a little overconfident Eren."

"It's not overconfidence it's all part of the plan. The less people know about you and think of me as the main threat the more likely we have a chance of coming out on first place. Since we're the first match I'd like to hide as many cards as possible." Eren said.

Xavier smiled and simply walked away without saying a single word leaving Eren to his own devices.

* * *

 **Present Time**

* * *

In one of the private rooms sat Vallehein he had a tablet in hand and a bright smile on his face. Lorenzo stood behind him curious to see what the prince had planned for the tournament. To his left was Liliana and a mysterious Absol pokemorph which Lorenzo had brought in.

"Vallehein, what's the point of manipulating the bracket in such a way?" Lorenzo asked.

There was a big smirk on his face as he continued to lick his lips. "I just like seeing young girls getting destroyed by something bigger than they can take."

"Make sure I get my part of the deal, you better have your underling and my underling fight against that damn monkey." Lorenzo said.

"Yeah yeah, don't worry Yajima and whoever he's paired up with won't survive this tournament. For now let's see what the son of the Royal Weapon's development site has to offer." Vallehein laughed.

* * *

Eren stepped onto the battlefield looking a both of his opponents. Moria the Glaceon had a very thin build but a sizeable chest. Her long snow white hair fell down to the base of her back. She had bright blue eyes, and poking out the top of her head were glaceon ears and at the base of her back was a tail. She wore her school's uniform and her conduit was a nano bot conduit but none the likes Eren had seen before.

Looking at her partner Xander gave off a whole different aura, while Moria exerted elegance, her partner seemed to be surrounded in blood lust. It was typical for someone from Jasper, but this one in particular seemed to be extra strong. He had bright yellow eyes and a strong jawline which contained enlarged fangs. On the top of his head was a mess of black hair and the signature noivern ears and crest. His shoulders were quite broad, and he was covered in muscle from head to toe. Like his species he had his wings attached to his arms and a fur mane around his neck. His clothes were simple as it was simply a black tank top and some cameo cargo pants. His draconic feet had nothing to cover them up and on his back was a large bag filled to the brim with all kinds of weapons.

* * *

"Robert for those just tuning into the tournament how about we explain the rules and conditions for the fight!" Francis said.

"Right you are Francis! Each competitor will be given a shield to protect them from lethal attacks, everyone's shields are scaled with their own strength and stamina. The shield however will not protect you from pain simply from fatal harm. Since this is the first round the battlefield which the combatants will be fighting on will be randomized!" Robert said.

"The ways you are eliminated from the tournament are as follows! a knock out that lasts more than five seconds will result in a loss, falling out of bounds will result in a loss, however it is illegal to lift your opponent and carry them out of the ring. If the fifteen minute timer runs down to zero it will be up to the referee to decide who the winner is, and this is a rare case but if you do anything that seems like you have the intention of murder you will be immediately disqualified." Francis said.

* * *

Eren, Moria and Xander all looked up at the huge screen. The screen displayed their currently known stats. He noticed that Moria and Xander was a relatively new team, and that their wins were completely unknown. This either mean't they haven't fought together once or they are more into the underground fighting scene.

However Eren had quite the head count and had many 1st place finishes in tournaments across both Aether and Jasper. There was a bright smirk on his face which he quickly shook off an replaced with an angry growl. He put his hands in his pockets as his conduit formed at both of his hands. The one thought running through his mind was. _"What a waste of time."_

He looked over towards Moria and Xander. "I give you two five seconds to defeat me. If you manage to last more than that I'll throw you two a bone, and forfeit"

Xander straightened up. "Those are some big words for a little boy. You'll regret saying that!"

Moria smiled. "That cocky attitude of yours will be your downfall!"

Once the wheel on the monitor had finished spinning it was decided that the battlefield would be a flat ice field with hail and large ice spikes sticking out of the ground. Eren was indifferent to the battlefield as he knew the result to this battle, Moria was excited, but her partner was a little disgusted with all the ice.

All three of them looked over to the referee who stood up on his podium. "Alright fighters please prepare your weapons so we can start this fight."

Xander grabbed a large broad sword from his bag of weapons letting the massive blade rest on his shoulders. Moria held what appeared to be the hilt of a sword. It soon extended into a hologram of a broad sword.

Eren shook his head in disappointment. His conduit form around his hand the golden metal had electric circuitry which had a blue tint to it. He smiled and signaled to the referee that he was good to go. Moria and Xander did the same.

The monitor in the tournament began to countdown and everyone in the whole arena yelled out the same thing. "Five, Four, Three, Two, One!"

Eren immediately punched the ground, the whole stadium shook with an incredible amount of force. In a split second a massive wall of ice had formed. The spires of ice were mere inches away from the audience and they could feel the cool air radiating from the attack. Everyone in the waiting rooms stood there shocked, they could barely believe their eyes. They didn't even think it was possible to make an attack on that scale.

Justin and Wendy were absolutely in shock at the attack. They stood there in the waiting room with their jaws dropped to the floor. As the shock began to wear off Wendy looked at Justin's shaking hands, she soon found her own hands begin to shake as well. Xavier who stood in the hall behind Eren smiled and knew that this was the upgrade that Eren was talking about. Yajima grew excited and nervous at the same time, but the one thought going through everyone's mind was.

 _"How the hell did he generate that much energy."_

Eren rose up proudly his right arm was covered in a thick layer of ice. The ice around his arms began to thaw and eventually turned into steam. He looked up into the crowd and frowned. "I'll prove to you I'm strong mother, I am winning this to prove you wrong."

The referee raised up his flag. "The winner is Eren! He will be moving to the next round!"

Eren smiled. "Like I said, what a waste of time."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Oh boy that took a while to come out! Really sorry for that but oh boy am I getting excited to write some actual battles! Just how strong is Eren going to get? Will Yajima get first place? Will Justin ever... wait hold on that's some major spoilers!

But seriously I can't wait to show off everyone's training! I've given a good amount of the cast techniques that I really want to be a surprise for their creators! Techniques and attacks that I wish everyone really likes!


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note:** Just a short chapter for now and the reason why the story is updating so slowly is mainly because I fucked up the timeline! I woke up getting ready to upload "chapter 16" only to realize that "chapter 16" was actually "chapter 18" in my outline. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy the real version of 16 and hopefully 17 will be out just a few days after this one depending on if writing a battle goes smoothly.

* * *

Justin found himself in Wendy's home, after all he was technically being housed by Steven who now played the role of his legal guardian. Steven was out at work so he had the house with Wendy for the night. This just mean't he was cooking dinner for Wendy as Steven would usually be the one to cook all the meals. He just wanted something simple so he hoped that Wendy would feel the same.

It was really nice cooking in such an up to date kitchen. A top of the line stainless steal stove and sink. The counter tops were made of wood which was well kept by Steven as he used it as a work surface and a cutting board. They did have to apply food grade mineral oil every now and again, but it was nice being able to cut and work on every bit of the counter top. It mainly came in handy when Justin or Steven made fresh pasta together.

Justin decided to walk towards Wendy's room to make sure she was up. It was usually around dinner time when she would take a nap, and once she started napping there was almost nothing that could wake her up. Her door was closed so he made sure to knock. "Hey Wendy you in there?" There was no response so he slowly opened the door to reveal a completely empty room.

Justin needed to use the washroom before he started cooking. Upon opening the door it was a blast of steam. This was odd as Wendy had a shower just an hour ago. Maybe she forgot to turn off the water. Justin chuckling to himself walked to the shower and reached into turn off the water. "Wendy! You forgot to turn off the water!" But when he reached in his hand wasn't around some piece of metal but rather something soft, warm, round and hard in one spot.

At first he was confused what his hand was warped around. As he began to kneed the object in his hand. There was a bright blush running across his cheeks as stared at the person right in front of him. In front of him was Wendy, her silvery blue eyes were watery, on the verge of crying and her cheeks were completely flushed pink. Her jaw was wide open as she struggled to process what was taking place.

Justin quickly pulled back his hand. "W-Wendy! I uh... no I didn't mean anything by th-that! I-I'm so sorry!" He quickly turned around closing his eyes with a bright blush running across his cheeks. He briefly saw Wendy's naked body, and now couldn't get the image out of his mind. "Why am I thinking about seeing Wendy a hundred different ways! "

Wendy turned around as she could instantly feel her whole body rising up in temperature. She was speechless at what Justin did. She wasn't mad or annoyed it was just such a surprise. Earlier in the day she had been thinking about her current relationship with Justin, and what it mean't to her. Truthfully she was taking a second shower to calm her thoughts.

Reaching for the shower's handle she slowly turned off the water. She took in a deep breath calming her nerves. "J-Justin... are you still there?"

Justin who was too scared and nervous to move. He was scared at how Wendy was going to react. Weakly squeaked out a simple, "y-yeah!"

There was a deep blush running across Wendy as she turned around to look at Justin. His back was to her, and he stood up very straight. His stance said it all, that he thought she was going to be pissed at him. Justin who was frozen by his own fear soon felt his heart drop as he felt a soaking wet body press up against his back. He looked down and saw Wendy's small arms wrap around his torso. He felt her face press into his back.

"W-what are y-y-you doing Wendy?!" Justin questioned.

"Stop being so scared. Please... Justin, I've been giving it some thought and I like you. I like you a lot. The way I feel when I'm around you makes my heart flutter so much, and even now it feels like it's going to burst out of my chest. My uncle told me to ask you this simple question, but even now as I'm think about it I'm quivering." Wendy said.

Justin tried to turn around to face Wendy, but she quickly tightened her arms keeping him in place. He could feel her burying her face deeper into his back. "Justin... will you please be my date to the dance?"

"Yeah yeah sure! Anything!" Justin quickly said, but he knew that this was just a nervous response to the situation he was in. He pried Wendy's arms off of his torso and took both of his own hands slapping his cheeks.

Wendy took a step back. Then instantly blushed covering her parts with her hands as Justin turned around to face her with an equally bright blush. "Wendy... Please be my girlfriend! There's a place I want to go, so will you go out on a date with me!"

There was the biggest smile on Wendy's face. "JUSTIN! GET OUT OF THE WASHROOM FIRST! Then we can on a date."

Justin quickly covered his eyes. "R-r-right o-of course!"

* * *

It was the next morning and it was a day where more Vital Tournament matches were being held. However for Wendy and Justin the two of them decided that they wanted to go on a date with each other. They were going to be browsing the carnival grounds and just enjoying each other's company.

Wendy had worn what she normally wears on a day to day basis, and she saw it as comfortable and functional, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that Justin had dressed up a bit. He wasn't wearing his own clothes but rather clothing that Winston had lent to him. He did look very nice in Winston's clothes. He was wearing a light blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows some tight fitting black jeans and some navy blue polo shoes.

There were many events to try but Justin had completely planned out the date last night thinking of all the possible outcomes that could happen. He mainly focused on the things that he knew Wendy would enjoy and a few things that would be out of their comfort zone.

"Uh... so you wanna hold hands or something?" Justin asked.

There was a bright blush on Wendy's face as she pulled back her hand. "NO! Not yet... I don't want to get pregnant!"

There was a confused look on Justin's face. He wasn't sure if Wendy was joking or not "Are you serious?"

"My uncle told me if you hold hands with a boy you get pregnant! I-I don't want to risk it! It's not like I don't want kids, but I'm not ready for it."

Justin let out a giggle. "Really?!"

Wendy pouted for a bit. "Justin I'm being serious here, what's so funny about that!"

Justin wiped away the tear leaking from his eye. "That's not how you get pregnant. It's something much more intimate. I promise plus how many times have you held my hand while you snuck into my room and into my bed at your place."

There was a massive blush on Wendy's face. "Y-you know about that?..."

"Yeah you wake me up every time you do it." Justin had a bright smile on his face.

"I-I'm sorry you're just so warm, and the way you tighten your arms around me makes me feel safe. I know it's silly, but I really enjoy sharing a bed with you."

There was a deep blush on Justin's face. "Well... anyway how about we enjoy our date. We do have to spar with Winston and Coraline after this."

The two of them spent the majority of their time just talking and holding hands. From a date standpoint it was just like the two of them hanging out just as they normally would. Cracking jokes and enjoying each other's time. Justin did enjoy just how naturally good Wendy was at the small games, but was also equally frustrated that it was Wendy who was winning him most of the prizes.

Along the way they did however ran into a certain someone they weren't expecting to talk to. It was Eren who seemed to be talking to a few shady people. Eren stood in front and conversed with what looked to be a Sharpedo pokemorph and a young girl who hid her appearance with a hoodie and a white sleek mask. Behind the Sharpedo was Liliana who looked visibly uncomfortable.

"Boy hand over that conduit of yours or else there will be trouble, and trust me you don't want to mess with someone like me."

"Why would I hand over my conduit to the leader of an arms dealer? It's not for sale pal, you better back off before you cause a scene." Eren retaliated.

Liliana who could see the tension in the air responded with a quiver in her voice. "Lorenzo sir, please you just saw what Eren did in the ring, let's not do this."

"You Espeon uh... Liliana was it? Why is someone like you working for a sketchy arms dealer? Please don't you have a little more pride than that." Eren said.

Justin who was simply a bystander couldn't take it anymore. "Wendy, I'm going to see what's going on. Liliana looks extremely uncomfortable. I can't just stand here and watch." He walked up to the scene putting himself in between Lorenzo, Eren and Liliana. "Sir, I think you need to back off of my friends."

Lorenzo looked at Justin and looked in the direction of Wendy who had a pure expression of distress. He smiled and looked right back at the young Blaziken. There were now a few adults that had entered the area keep a close eye on him. Lorenzo could feel the tension in the air towards him, and took quick notice of the sharp looks given to him. Taking in a deep breath. "Eren don't expect any mercy when some of my subordinates come to destroy what little reputation you've built up. C'mon let's get out of here H. Liliana, you're not mine so feel free to do what you like."

The girl in the sweater simply nodded walking away along with Lorenzo. When the two of them had disappeared into the crowd Liliana took a deep breath of air calming her nerves. She looked Eren in the eye and immediately thanked him.

"Eren thank you so much for coming to help me!" Liliana excitedly said.

"Yeah yeah... it's not big deal. Anyway I won't help you again if you get into trouble so you better watch your own back." Eren said.

Justin soon returned to Wendy. "So sorry about that, but remember we have that whole sparring thing we have to do with Winston and Coraline."

"Oh right! C'mon let's hurry up!" Wendy excitedly said.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** You made it here! That's great thanks for reading I'll see you guys in the up coming chapters.

So regarding some of the less used characters example being Fritz, Maria, Kaito and a good amount of the cast. Don't stress out it's really me who should be stressing out for making the stupid decision to allow this many characters into the story! LOL! Anyway I do plan to give them development but please be sure to reference your characters in reviews so they don't disappear from my sights. Cause my Beta cough cough Xander46 cough cough has just been AFK and not responding for the past 2 weeks!


	17. Chapter 17

It had already turned to the first night of the Vital Tournament, and many matches were finished by now, however many of the students still had their first matches coming up the next day. It would be a good time to rest and relax, but Asteria and Aiden had other plans. It was the day they decided to gorge on seafood together at one of the pop up restaurants near the Vital Tournament.

Each one of them were preparing in their own way. Both of them wanted to be discrete about it as not to let rumours spread so it was decided that Yajima and Fritz were coming along for the ride. Aiden stood in front of a mirror adjusting his red polo shirt, it fit snuggly on his toned body same with his black jeans and matching black polo shoes.

Fritz who was finishing cleaning up decided to speak up. "Wow you're dressed nicer than usual."

Aiden laughed it off. "I just wanna look nice you know, pull a 'Fritz' I guess you could say."

Fritz groomed his hair. "Looks like I'm starting to rub off on you."

Asteria was in her room completely flustered and frustrated with Yajima. She had tried on different outfits from fancy dresses to casual wear to formal casual wear, but none of them were working. She tried to ask for Yajima's approval but he was as blunt as a wooden club.

"Ok this is like the fifteenth outfit do you have anything positive to say!" Asteria yelled.

"I guess I should say nothing then." Yajima laughed.

"Is that good or bad?" Asteria questioned.

"It's said that if you don't have anything good to say then don't say anything at all." Yajima laughed. "Freckles, why do you even care, we're just going to eat some seafood hotpot, you don't exactly have to look good. I'm just going in my usual clothes."

There was an angry blush on her face. "Shut up! I want to look nice ok! Something you clearly don't understand!" In her fit of rage she quickly slipped on a simple white blouse, some light coloured blue jeans her silver flats and a black tight fitting jacket. She grabbed her small brown leather purse. "There I'm wearing this you jerk!"

The restaurant that they went to was an authentic Jasper seafood hotpot restaurant. Aiden and Fritz were the first ones to arrive, then soon later Yajima and Asteria showed up. Asteria's eyes instantly darted towards Aiden who had cleaned up nicely, despite him being quite a bit shorter than she was, she couldn't help but blush at how handsome he looked. She quickly shook her head getting focused. She waved and began to run up to Aiden. "Hey! You guys are early!" Yajima sort of just tailed behind.

Aiden was stunned by how pretty Asteria looked in her outfit. He rubbed the back of his head with a pleasant sigh of relief. Honestly he was kind of worried that Asteria would've stood him up. He was glad to see that she showed up.

"You look great!" Aiden said.

Asteria tucked her hair behind her ear. "Glad to see someone thinks so."

Aiden held open the door. "Well ladies first."

Their hangout went along as expected they split the bill four ways but that allowed them to get quite the spread. Since this was a true Jasper restaurant some things that might seem expensive under a Nexal eye was actually quite cheap here. It was basically a bunch of crab legs a few whole lobsters. Fritz was reasonable and ordered everyone fish and Yajima surprisingly was the one chose all the vegetables to throw in although it was mainly all just spicy peppers.

Asteria was opening up her crab legs using her psychic abilities as to not get her hands dirty. "Mmmmm this is so good! Aiden thank you so much for inviting me!"

The night consisted of Aiden sharing his memories with Asteria, the two of them had some good laughs and the subjects of the night was definitely the differences between the two of them. Asteria had missed this kind of casual conversation with a friend, ever since she came to the new school her cold up front personality made it really hard to socialize with anyone, but for some reason she could really feel herself warming up to Aiden. After all her only friend at the moment was a ticking time bomb who was currently scarfing down crab legs drenched in hot sauce.

"HEY CAN I GET MORE CHILI OIL HERE! DAMN IT THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD!" Yajima yelled.

Aiden leaned back in his chair letting out a sigh. "Looks like Yajima and Fritz are enjoying themselves. I mean I don't think Yajima has taken a single breath since he started stuffing food into his mouth and Fritz seems to be really enjoying the fish. How about you, you've eaten the least out of all of us. Are you not enjoying your time?"

Asteria shook her head. "Of course I'm having a great time! I-... I'm here with you." Her heart was beating out of her chest as she thought about acting on something she wanted to do. She shifted over slightly sitting ever so closer to Aiden. "I... I wanted to ask you something."

Aiden hesitated for a moment taking notice that Asteria had inched ever so closer to him. "Sure what is it?"

"I... I'd like you to be my date to the moonlight ball." Asteria's face had a bright red blush running across her cheeks. She placed her hand over the top of Aiden's.

There was a soft blush appearing on Aiden's face. "W-wouldn't you rather go with Yajima? Uh... I.. mean I'd love to go with you to the dance."

The two of them awkwardly looked away hoping that their partners wouldn't notice a thing. The two of them slowly interlocked fingers both surprised just at how warm and nice it felt to be holding someone else's hand. Asteria soon whispered. "Let's meet up later ok just the two of us."

Aiden slowly nodded in response. "Hey good luck with your battles."

Asteria giggled. "Yeah you too short stack!"

* * *

In one of the private rooms sat Vallehein. He was looking at a tablet and the rigged bracket that he had paid quite a handsome fee for. Standing in front of him was his 'Royal Guard' Liliana. She looked nervous like usual but beside her was Lorenzo's underling. She was a very cute girl in his eyes. She was quite short, her hair was snow white and on the side of her head was the signature Absol crest. Her skin was quite pale almost ghostly and the bags under her light blue eyes were very large. Her hair was messy it was tied into two messy buns and her bangs covered one eye. Her teeth were sharp and her overall build was quite lanky. She wore a neatly kept white button up blouse which was covered by a navy blue blazer which had a tight fit around her thin body. The buttons on the blazer have golden thread as a highlight. She also wore a purple short skirt that barely covers up anything. Looking at her legs she wore light brown thigh high stockings that hug her legs tightly, and knee high purple boots to finish off the look.

"Henriette was it? Your boss says you're strong I expect a show. He told me that your fighting style is quite unique and doesn't really follow the rules of the tournament, is that right?" Vallehein asked.

Henriette covered her mouth letting out a soft giggle. "Please call me Henri!" She tilted her head giving off a bright grin showing off her sharp canine teeth. "Please please please let me taste blood!"

Vallehein waved his hand back and forth. "Yeah yeah no worries. I've also paid off the ref so feel free to go wild."

Henri jumped for joy smiling she ran over to Liliana who was visibly uncomfortable. "I can't wait to fight! Yum yum blood lovely blood! Lovely spit lovely spit! Just thinking about slicing open someone's skin bit by bit gets me so excited!"

"Uh... good for you." Liliana whimpered.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen welcome back to the second day of the Vital Tournament! We had some exciting rounds yesterday and we definitely expect more to happen today! In the right corner we have the hopeful team of Winston and Coraline both students here in Vexal! While in the left corner we have Lilliana Lalatina the royal guard to one of the four princes of Aether. She is the head leader of her faction and her skills in battle are nothing to scoff at. Fighting as her partner is Henriette Tritor. She is known in the kingdom of Tsu as the little assassin, her wins in many tournaments is just absurd. Robert do you have any thoughts?" Francis said.

"Not really, you've summed it up pretty well. Winston and Coraline are the underdogs here, they're up against a pretty stacked team, but remember just because you've won tournaments in the past that doesn't make you strong. Now let's start the randomization process!"

* * *

The monitor above the crowd's head revealed a colour wheel which began to spin. Winston and Coraline carefully watched the wheel, but on the other hand both Liliana and Henri looked away from it, as if they knew the result. As the wheel slowed down both Coraline and Winston's hearts sank at the result.

"A storm stage..." Winston whispered to himself.

Coraline looked at him. "I... I-It's ok! Look we might be on a stage that heavily disadvantages us, but things should be fine. We've worked so hard, and we even went toe to toe against Justin and Wendy. We fought them to a standstill, we've got this!"

* * *

Wendy and Justin who were watching up in the crowd instantly felt the guilt sink in. Truthfully they had sparred against Winston and Coraline to boost their confidence going into their fight. It was decided that between the two of them that they would go easy on Winston and Coraline. They wanted to help them feel good going into their fight, but it was soon made clear that this might make them too cocky to think straight.

Justin panicked as he began running simulations in his head, and he could only of this going south for his friends. "Wendy, this is a bad! A storm stage is really bad for Winston, with the constant down pour he won't be able to fly. His wings will be completely weighed down. Since it's also a storm stage lightning will often strike the stage as well and since Coraline's weapon is basically a lightning rod she'll be too busy thinking about dodging bolts of electricity to focus on the fight."

Wendy chewed out the bottom of her lip. "Winston is also has a type disadvantage to Liliana who's an Espeon and Coraline who's a Phantump will definitely have trouble against Henriette who's an Absol."

* * *

 **On The Battlefield**

* * *

Winston looked forward as the rain had now just begun to set in. The droplets of water were cold to the touch and they were heavy quickly soaking his clothes, wings and hair. He could also barely hear his own thoughts under the down pour and the sound of thunder impaired his ability to use echolocation.

Coraline got ready by getting into her usual stance. The only difference was the heaviness in her clothes hair and at the blade of her weapons she could see small sparks of electricity. She knew this was from the storm, and she knew that she'd have to be careful about lightning strikes.

Winston thought in his head. "The only thing we can hope for is that the two of them have metal based weaponry to at least have them deal with some of this electricity."

Everyone looked to the referee. "Everyone please ready your weapons!"

Winston pulled out his simple knives, but everyone in his class knew that this was really a decoy as his fighting style was much more hand to hand orientated. Coraline readied her ko-naginata she held it proudly with two hands in a stance similar to those who practiced Kendo.

Everyone in the class carefully watched Liliana they all knew of her, but they didn't really know what she was like even more so how she fought. She took in a deep breath focusing her mind, and as she did so the air around her began to grow incredibly hot. The water that had soaked into her clothes had began to evaporate, and a bright but powerful energy flowed around her body. Soon shadowy orbs orbited around her, and when she opened up her eyes a blast of psychic energy had shot out briefly holding every rain drop in place.

Both Winston and Coraline gulped at just how much pressure they felt radiating from Liliana. They looked at each other and tensed up.

Henri did something that shook both Winston and Coraline to the core. They had only met one other person who could use this ability, sure she wasn't the strongest battler but in terms of pure strength she was second to none. Henri had placed her hands together and a bright white energy had formed, she slowly pulled her hands apart to reveal two small knives made of pure energy.

Winston stepped back, and so did Coraline. Winston was thinking to himself. "If she can form weapons out of thin air there's no telling how strong she is. The announcers said she's won multiple tournaments so her technique must be flawless."

Henri waved her hand. "Hey pretty boy you better not be chickening out! I want to see how you taste. I like to play with my food so please be nice!"

Liliana took a deep breath. "Winston, Coraline, I'm telling you this as a friend, but if you don't surrender now this fight will be slow and painful. You have no idea how rigged this tournament is. I suggest you leave."

Winston and Coraline both shared a glance, they could see the fear in each other's eyes. It had crossed their minds to give up with just how stacked everything seemed. A bad stage, absurdly strong opponents, and type disadvantage. They were about to call it until they saw Maria Markus, screaming at the tops of their lungs. "YOU CAN DO IT! DON'T GIVE UP!"

The two of them swallowed their fear and motioned to the referee that they were ready for the fight. "The rules of this battle are of Vital Tournament Standard Rules. Both of you may fight whenever you feel ready."

Winston took in a deep breath quickly throwing one of his knives at Henri. Henri saw it and quickly split the knife with one of her blades taking pleasure at the sound of clanking metal. She charged forward to meet Winston half way. Winston stepped back swinging his leg to the side to go for a round house kick. Henri quickly leaped over Winston's leg, she jumped backwards to create some space after seeing Coraline charge in head first with her weapon.

Coraline ended up missing but Henri moved off to the side, she dashed in while pushing away Coraline's weapon making her lose her footing.

Henri then ran past Coraline soon closing the distance between her and Winston. Winston put up his arms, but was instantly shocked to see that Henri quickly mixed it up by getting in behind him, she quickly slashed at his back. The pain stung, but it wasn't unbearable. He jumped away to close the distance but it was no use Henri was just too fast for him to keep up, she quickly slashed at his arms and legs leaving them all scarred up and bleeding. He was back to back to Coraline who was easily just as nervous as he was after witnessing how strong Henri was.

Henri ran at the two of them quickly slashing past Coraline who was having trouble keeping up with Henri's raw speed. Her longs swipes with her conduit made it extremely hard to keep up and her rigid technique wasn't good against something so free form. Normally the move slash would just fade right through her but since Henri was briefly activating night slash it made it impossible to avoid. Coraline's body was getting scratched up and blood tickled out of her skin and the stinging pain was getting to her.

Winston wasn't doing any better. He looked ahead at Liliana who was simply standing there doing nothing, but unfortunately Henri was more than enough to keep him and Coraline off of her. Each time Henri struck Coraline she would switch towards Winston and quickly stab him with a flurry of blows knocking him back and off balance. While this all happened strikes of lightening would constantly strike where Coraline was due to her conduit.

Henri smiled as she quickly ran up to the two of them isolating Coraline, Winston knew he had to jump back despite hating the idea of it, but if he got caught in another attack he knew it'd be over. He created the distance between him and Henri, but was worried for Coraline, he kept his eyes planted on what was happening.

Henri pushed away Coraline's weapons knocking her off balance. Her blades soon disappeared from her hands. She grabbed Coraline by the chin and planted a forceful kiss onto her. Henri leaped back licking her lips leaving Coraline with a bright blush but also very confused.

"MMMmmmmm you taste lovely!" Henri smiled.

The following moments were quite odd for Coraline her mind became clouded, and it was hard to think. The only thing in her mind now was the desire to defeat Winston. She slowly walked beside Henri holding her conduit up and pointing it towards Winston. She could only feel a deep hatred burning in her heart towards him, but her thoughts were clouded by something. Something she couldn't quite tell. A wide smile stretching from cheek to cheek appeared on her face as she began to laugh. "HA HA I can't wait to kill you pretty boy!"

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Next time on Troubled Days Winston vs Coraline! Hey guys I really hope you enjoyed the chapter and I was finally able to get this one out a lot faster than other chapters! Big thanks to Lizzy2k for officially becoming my new beta as she really helped out a lot with chapter. Not sure when Chapter 18 is going to come out, but hopefully soon.

Anyway just let me know your thoughts on the chapter! This was quite a packed chapter after all!


	18. Chapter 18

**Author Notes:** Hey guys this chapter would've come out faster if I wasn't so busy watching some Hell's Kitchen. Before you guys get into the chapter there is a story that I would like to shout out the link will be posted in my bio so please be sure to check it out and leave a review. It is written by Yajima's author and is about this fic! with that said please enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Justin and Wendy looked at the raining battlefield and sunk deep into their chairs. Justin soon pulled out his notebook and Wendy carefully stared at what he was writing down. He was analyzing the fighting style of Henri. This was the first time that Justin had done this during all of the matches they had watched together. He was writing down her move pool and the way that she fought along with things such as personality traits that stood out to him.

Wendy looked back at the fight hoping that Winston would be able to pull through in one piece. She saw Henri and Liliana sitting back as it was really just a one on one with Winston vs Coraline. "Justin, what's going on? Why is Cora attacking Winston?"

Justin rubbed his chin and continued writing down more notes. "I'm not sure yet, it could be that Liliana is controlling Coraline from a distance, but that would be against the rules. The ref would've disqualified them by now if that was the case. So that can't be it."

Winston was getting pushed back by Coraline who had kept a barrage of attacks against him. She was fast, so much faster than what he was used to. She had a heavy weapon but she was moving it against him as if it were made of paper. His body was constantly getting scratched up as she continued her flurry of attacks.

Winston tried to avoid each strike as each one had the force and precision to be lethal. "Ugh! Cora, what are you doing? Please stop this!"

There was no response from her just more strikes. Winston jumped back doing a flip onto his hand. He quickly spun around kicking with a great amount of force into Coraline's shoulder. He could hear and feel the cracking bones in her shoulder as the motion made her drop her weapon.

Liliana who was watching and knew exactly what was going on saw Henri wince in pain grabbing her own shoulder. Looking back at the fight Coraline reached up and placed her hand on her shoulder letting out an eerie laugh. A shadowy aura formed around her body as what appeared to be vines of shadowy energy.

"Shadow's Curse!" Massive vines shot out of the ground and ran towards Winston. As the vines closed the distance Coraline picked up her heavy weapon with one arm as if it was the lightest thing in the world. Henri though was beginning to sweat in response to all of Coraline's movements.

The vines caught Winston by the arms dragging him to his knees as he struggled to fight against how seemingly strong Coraline had become in a few seconds. He gritted his teeth and tried to break free from Shadow's Curse but it was futile. "Coraline! Please why are you doing this? Please stop... You're my best friend, and I don't know why you hate me so much right now! I don't know what I did to make you so angry, but please if you're angry at then just knock me out! If you believe you can defeat the two of them on your own then please don't let me be the one to stop you from achieving your dream."

Winston could only stare at Coraline as she began to charge even faster towards him with her weapon pointed right at him. He looked down and accepted defeat, and he could now only hear the whimpering cry of Coraline, painfully he looked up to see a blade pointed right at him just a hairs length from his nose. There was a mad insane smile on Coraline's face, but her eyes were pouring with tears of despair.

Yajima who was up in the crowd beside his battle partner instantly sat up in shock. He knew he recognized that no good Absol but he couldn't put his finger on it. She was a very important underling to an enemy from his past, but he quickly remembered what her Osia was. He had dealt with it before, but to see someone who he thought was probably the weakest fighter in the class push against something that his own willpower wasn't able to overcome did impress him.

"Freckles that Absol's Osia is unlike anything you've probably seen before. She calls it transfusion and depending on the bodily fluid she ingests it can have different effects. When she ingests saliva she projects her consciousness into the mind of the person's saliva she swallowed. It's not complete control however both parties have say in what the body does when it happens, but with her overwhelming personality it can feel like a one sided battle." Yajima explained.

"How do you know this?" Asteria asked.

"Before coming to Vexal I've dealt with Henri before. That Little Assassin is extremely dangerous. She can also only posses one person at a time, but the effect never goes away until she posses another person." Yajima said.

Winston just looked up at Coraline who still had her weapon pointed at her. He smiled and knew that this was defeat. He knew it was done and he knew that something was wrong with Coraline he was going to end the fight. Sure it was going to be a cowardly way but he it had to be done. He let out a sigh. "Sorry Cora, but as team captain I'm calling the forfeit. I know how much you wanted to win, but I don't want to see you hurt anymore."

There was a sudden out burst from Coraline tears ran down her face as she mustered all of her strength to fight back against the depressing crowded feeling in her mind. She didn't want Winston to give up because of her. She bit the bottom of her lip and pushed through the clouded pain, the weight of her clothing and the pain in her shoulder. "Don't... Give... Up..."

Winston could feel forest curse's vines begin to weaken. The moment his hand was freed up he leaned back kicking both of his feet up grabbing Coraline's weapon. He jumped up into the air doing an axe kick into the other vine snapping it breaking free. He ran right towards Coraline and with great regret kneed her in the stomach with all of his might. The impact sounded like a gun shot as it echoed through the whole stadium and everyone felt just how strong that hit was. Coraline soon fell down from the impact completely unable to move, of course Winston caught her on the fall down, but now it was just the two versus one for him.

Henri was clenching her stomach, her eyes opened up wide. Her mouth was drooling, as she felt the burning pain in her shoulder and stomach. She soon loosened up her body returning it back to its normal stance. "You pack a punch, but it's nothing compared to the beating I'll get from my boss if I lose. I think it's time to end this."

"FINE! COME AT ME!" Winston yelled.

The two of them ran towards each other. Henri with her knives made of pure energy, and Winston with his simple metal blades. Henri quickly took each slice towards his head and Winston was just barely able to keep up. Henri was very fast, and she would constantly be jumping around him disorientating him. Each slice on his arms and wings cut right through his flesh, and it didn't really matter if he had padding as her blades easily sliced through them. He got a few kicks in but Henri didn't seem to care she'd simply take the hit and hit him even harder.

Winston closed the distance by throwing his disposable knives. Henri did slice right through them, but with the small opening Winston was able to kick her right in the torso knocking the wind out of her. He grabbed her by the arm and quickly kicked her in the stomach as many times as he could. As Henri used her other arm to quickly stab the arm that Winston was holding her with Winston jumped up into the air getting a full round house kick right into the side of her head.

Henri jumped back, her vision was blurry and it was hard to breath with just how many times she had been kicked in the stomach, but she had the ace up her sleeve. She still had her Osia, but this time around it was the blood variant. There was a lot of Winston's blood on her hands and she quickly raised it up to her lips taking in a little lick.

In that moment all the tiny cuts on Winston's body erupted, and an immense amount of pain shot through his whole body. He fell down on the ground in a small puddle of his own blood. The pain surging through his cuts felt like there were mountains of salt being rubbed into them. Henri slowly walked towards Winston with a bright smile on her face. "Mmmm I like you a lot pretty boy."

The ref looking at the battlefield put up his flag and declared Henri and Liliana as the winner.

* * *

Wendy and Justin after watching the match instantly went to go see Winston and Coraline. They were simply being held in the infirmary. When the walked in they were glad to see both of them completely fine. Winston was covered in bandages and was wincing at the rubbing alcohol being applied to his cuts. Coraline had a bag of ice on her stomach and her arm was being taken care of.

"So how you guys feeling?" Wendy asked.

Winston sighed. "Alright I guess... We didn't win, but it was still kinda fun." Winston was lying through his teeth. He was extremely frustrated with losing in the first round. He really wanted to make it to the finals.

Justin could pick up on it and decided to let Winston know what he thought of the battle. "Winston you did amazing. Don't let this fight put you down, you went toe to toe with a tournament champion and almost fought her to a stand still. That's nothing to scoff at you're an amazing battler."

"NO I'M NOT! Don't lie to me! I'm nothing special... just a boy who's trying to fulfill a pointless dream! Hide your losses behind smiles, lose while laughing it'll make you feel better they all said! But where did that land me! It landed me with quite possibly the worst fighting style specializing in kicks with useless tiny metal knives. I can't do anything fancy like you Justin I don't know how to throw out thousands of projectiles to calculate the fight. I can't use a strong conduit like Eren to form an indestructible shield that can also summon a massive wall of ice and I can't even summon a pillar of flames out of my body when I'm backed into a corner like Yajima! The only advantage that my species has in a fight is poison you know what it's banned! It's a banned way of fighting because of it's lethality and post fight effects!" Winston yelled.

"But you've still persevered haven't you? Winston, even with every disadvantage thrown your way you're still here fighting. You've still won fights you've triumphed over tough foes. I think that proves just how amazing of a competitor you are. You don't fight like others you just do what you know, and I know you'll make it far. Trust me I've had to work very hard to where I am now, I was never talented I can't doing any of the things that Yajima or Eren can do and that's fine. I'm still fighting giving it my all." Justin said.

Winston wiped away the tears falling down his face. "Thanks..."

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen! What a spectacle of round one matches we've had! The following battles are to make you brimming with excitement. The following matches will be for round two! Eren & Xavier vs Maria & Markus then soon following will be Asteria & Yajima vs Justin & Wendy. Then the final match for that day will be none other than Aiden & Fritz vs Henri & Liliana! We hope you all toon in for next time!"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Firefoxdriver here thanks for reading this chapter! Just let me know your thoughts on it all. I can't wait to get started on the next chapter! Anyway I'll see you all next time.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author Notes:** Sorry that this chapter took so long to come out. I'm in college again this time in Semester 2 so things are going to take longer to come out. I'm just super busy, but I will always try to get them out within a reasonable time. Please enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Winston slowly opened his eyes, he looked around and saw that he was in the infirmary. His arms, legs, and wings were completely bandaged up. The bandages were tight restricting his movement slightly. To his right was Coraline, her arm was in a sash as it was broken from their fight before. Although she seemed to be happily eating some apple sauce which was on her plate.

Winston took in a deep sigh pulling off the blanket which covered him. He stepped off of the bed and changed into his regular clothes. Coraline who had been watching him the whole time soon asked. "Where are you going?"

"We're out of the tournament... I'm going to train. I'll be back soon." Winston said. There was a painful harshness in his words. Something of the likes that Coraline hadn't heard before.

Winston's words did off put her a bit, but she decided to say something to cheer him up. "You're starting to sound like Yajima! Why don't you just relax for a bit. It was a good fight!"

"Yeah it was good, but I wasn't strong enough. That's the issue, if I keep putting a blind smile after every loss then there's no point in becoming a pro fighter. I've given it some thought after what Justin said, and I'm going to win no matter what. Even if that means I have to—" Winston caught himself before he let something important slip. In a softer tone he stood up straight. "I'll be back."

* * *

Deep in the woods near the Vital Tournament there was a small area where powerful impacts could be heard. Winston was training he was going through his drills beating up a large tree. His kicks were strong, as each one left a imprint on the tree.

"STRONGER I NEED TO GET STRONGER! How?! Just how?!" With each kick he threw at the tree his kicks were getting weaker. Kick after kick no matter fast he did them in rapid succession the tree wouldn't fall down. "Fall! Fall now! DO IT! WHY WON'T YOU FALL!"

Winston did a powerful round house kick right into the tree. The impact sounded like a gunshot which echoed through the whole forest. The kick sent vibrations up Winston's leg and into his hips. He soon fell down clenching both his side and ankle in pain. His breathing was intensely heavy, but still got back up.

He let out a few more kicks yelling. "FALL! FALL! FALL! FALL! FALL!" Eventually his cries got weaker and weaker. He knew he was weak, and training felt pointless by now. Truthfully he felt that training was pointless the moment he enrolled in the school. Seeing everyone grow stronger and faster than him made everything feel pointless. How was he to succeed as a battler with nothing but kicks and some simple knives. He fell to his knees head down with the tree still standing tall as if to mock him of just how big a failure he was.

Winston heard some scrunching grass behind him. It was someone he didn't know too well, the voice didn't sound all that familiar. It was a girl, as she was humming some sort of stong, it may have been twinkle twinkle little star, but it was hard to tell.

"Hi pretty boy. You're giving up already?"

Winston looked back to see Henri with a big bright smile. "Oh it's you." He stood up and turned around to face Henri. "So what? Have you come here to mock me or something?"

There was a bright smile on Henri face, and soon a bright blush formed on her cheeks. "I like a boy that isn't afraid to beat me up. I like you Winston, but unfortunately my boss says I can't have you all to myself."

There were large thick steps coming from behind Henri. The man that appeared before Winston was a powerful Sharpedo pokemorph. His pure presence was enough to make his legs shiver in fear. "Winston Star, that's no way to knock down a tree of that caliber, even I'm not powerful enough to knock down a 100 year old tree. I'd need a serious conduit to do so, but alas I do not have it on me. However I believe you have the strength to knock that tree down without the use of a conduit. Tell me Mr Star, have you ever tried to use your poison?"

"I uh... Sir." Winston stuttered. "You do know that using poison is illegal in Vexal right?"

"Sure in major tournaments it is, but please have you ever tried one on one underground fighting? You know secret matches for money without the media's attention. It's how a good amount of ex battlers make money you know." Lorenzo reached into his suit pulling out a small card. "Here, this is my card call me if you'd like me to sponsor you. I see much potential in you, please consider my offer."

"Wait... you're willing to sponsor me? Why? I lost horribly to her. I couldn't even bring her down and I wasn't strong enough to protect my partner. So why would you even consider sponsoring me?" Winston said.

"Lost horribly? No no no... I won't get into explaining why the way you fight is incredible in its own right. Here how about this, let me sponsor you and train you so that you can protect anyone you partner up with. Or if you decide to go solo protect yourself. However this deal only applies to you, so please keep it to yourself."

"Sir... thank you so much. Can I have some time to think about this?" Winston asked.

"I'll give you up until the end of the Vital Tournament." Lorenzo said.

* * *

After having a small talk with Lorenzo Winston went back to the Vital Tournament to briefly talk with Coraline about his plans. Soon after he headed back to his own house, there was something missing in his heart, a burning aching pain that he needed to sort out. Truthfully he never got into battling because he wanted to, but he got into it because he wanted to make his sister happy.

Christina or Chris for short was a conduit designer. She was actually the one to make Winston's disposable knives. It was the first conduit she ever came up with and it would be the conduit Winston would use in each fight.

Reaching his home he slowly opened up the door. The house was filled with the smell of creme and a lovely herbal scent. In the kitchen was his sister, she was simply cooking some food for herself. When she heard the door open her eyes quickly darted towards Winston. She stood there for a bit, turning off the stove.

"Hey Sis," Winston said.

"Winston! Oh my gosh! I saw your fight on TV are you alright?" Christina quickly ran up to her brother and guided him to the couch. She saw the poorly done bandaging on his wings. "Here hold on have you had food yet? Wait do you need something to drink?"

Winston let out a soft laugh. "Water will be fine."

Chris grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge handing it to her brother. She brought over a stool and got him to sit on it. She stood behind slowly undoing the bandages, she was careful touching her brother's wings as a crobat's wings were extremely sensitive. The wings had many nerve endings in them and could both feel extreme pain or extreme pleasure. She was worried when she did see the many cuts scattered on his wings, and the fact that some of the cuts were still bleeding.

She grabbed the first aid kit pulling out some towels and rubbing alcohol. She handed her brother one of the towels. "This is going to sting so just bite down on the towel for now."

Winston obliged and stuck the towel into his mouth clenching his hands in preparation. Chris grabbed the other towel and soaked it in the rubbing alcohol. She quickly rubbed down her brother's wings. She didn't know exactly how much it hurt, but she could tell from Winston's shivers that it was very painful. When she was done she tightened up the bandages and washed off her hands.

The two of them ate dinner together before going back to what they would normally do without their parents around. Chris would be working on her blueprints or selling her conduits online. However nowadays she took a lot longer than usual to leave her blueprints, in fact she didn't use the blueprints anymore and seemed to be more focused on her laptop. Winston decided to ask what was going on.

He was slightly amused at his sister scratching her head constantly chewing on a pen typing away at her laptop. "Ok that should be it. I think it might be ready. I've done so much testing."

"Chris you're talking out loud again." Winston laughed.

Christina looked over at her brother and smiled. "Winston can you step out in the backyard. There's something I want to show you. I've been working on a new conduit for you it's been three years in the making! I really hope you like it."

"Wait really!" Winston excited said. He quickly shook his head. "Hold on, I don't need a new conduit, the knives you made me are more than enough. They're the first conduit you ever made, are you sure you want me to replace them?"

Chris blushed as she ran up the stairs. "Just go into the backyard! I have to run and get the conduit!"

Winston obliged and slowly stepped outside. The sky had already turned dark, and the stars began to come out. Stargazing was one of his favourite things to do, his sister was taking quite a while, but he didn't mind. He heard the door slightly open standing there was Christina, she had put on a hoodie, it was actually one of his. There was a bright blush on her face. In her hands was a rigid hexagonal prism. The colour was a faded black, on the end of the hexagonal prism was an octagon that had a light blue glowing center. Around his sister's arm was a jacket he had never seen before.

"Ah geez I really hope I got your size correct. Here put on this jacket." Christina handed Winston a black jacket which was highlighted by grey lining across the chest and sleeves. The jacket looked very similar to his friend Justin's, but it was still slightly different at the ends of the sleeves. She then brought over the prism taking off the octagon. She placed it on his chest where the silver lining of the jacket converged. "Here, it needs to calibrate to your body first"

Winston looked down and saw the bright blush on his sister's face when she placed the octagon on his chest. "Hey are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm just nervous. I kinda rushed the conduit, it was mean't for tomorrow, but I guess since it's already midnight I can say happy birthday." She tapped a few different spots on the octagon. "Lucy activate!"

The moment Christina said her words the hexagonal prism split off into 12 hexagonal plates. 2 for his ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbows and shoulders. When each plate had followed the silver lining on the jacket and reached its designated spot a holographic heads up display appeared in front of Winston's eyes. "Lucy calibrate."

Right in Winston's ear he could hear his Sister's voice. "Hello Winston, my name is Lucy, please hold for a bit as I calibrate your body. Would you like to hear some music as this goes on? It could take awhile."

"Chris what is this?" Winston asked.

"Yes it seems to be working properly." A big bright smile found its way on her face when each hexagon lit up with a bright blue light. The light soon faded. "Winston does the head set say calibration complete?"

"Yeah it does." Winston said.

"Good! That means you can use the conduit to its full capacity. Why don't you ask Lucy a question she is my masterpiece after all. By far the best conduit I've ever designed. She's voice controlled so please give it a whirl!" Christina excitingly said.

"Uh... ok. Lucy, what can you do?" Winston asked.

"I am so glad you asked! I am Lucy an AI and Conduit made by Christina Star for the exclusive use of Winston Star. On your chest is the main power source and where I am housed. On your shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles are hexagonal plates made of a titanium steel alloy which is covered in a layer of tungsten. The can slide along the silver linings of your jacket to for weapons. Would you like to sample through your offensive options?"

"Uh... sure?" Winston said.

"Very good!" Lucy said.

The plates slid across Winston's body, on his left hand six of the Hexagons formed a shield while the rest formed a jagged gauntlet on his right. "This is your shield and gauntlet. Moving on I've heard you like to use kicks!" The hexagons rearranged themselves around his ankles and knees to form jagged blunt weapons for kicking.

"Chris this is amazing! I can't thank you enough!" Winston said.

"Wait there's more." Christina said.

The plates returned to their default position. "Winston, the area around us is too small and too populated to use the next two options. However I'll show you an example here."

Winston saw that he could fire off small pulses of energy to stun with a single plate, but could collect the plates to make even strong blasts. "Lucy thank you, Chris thank you so much for everything. Trust me I will use this conduit whenever I get the chance."

Christina had the biggest smile Winston could ever see, and he knew with this new upgrade he had a powerful future ahead of him. However what he didn't realize at the time is what this conduit would do to his life much later down the line. As Winston stares into the distant darkness only time will tell how his path will play out.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Hey guys I really hoped you enjoyed this chapter. As it is such a necessary step to where I want to take Winston. Just let me know your thoughts on the chapter, anyway I will see you next time.

Coming up "Yajima's Unbridled Rage!"


	20. Chapter 20

Hey guys FireFoxDriver here! So this is just going to be a heads up, but I think I need to take a break from writing Troubled Days: Bronze. It's not going to be a super long break, but managing this many characters has been a fat headache.

I might start working on other projects or be focusing on school and the such but Troubled Days will come back. It's something quite special, and there's no way I'm just going to let it end. For now though as I find the words I need to write in that story I'm going to be taking a break.

Feel free to review this chapter or Author's Note, as chapter 21 will be the continuation of the story. Thanks so much for reading and I really hope you guys will still be around for chapter 21 and future chapters!

This is FireFoxDriver signing out.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note:** All I have to say is please enjoy the final chapter of Troubled Days: Bronze.

* * *

Justin looked over at Wendy who was drenched in sweat. She had nothing more than her sweat pants, running shoes and red sports bra on. The two of them had just finished running their drills and training exercises. He reached over and grabbed her a water bottle whilst sitting right beside her.

He took in a deep breath as Wendy grabbed the bottle. "Kinda crazy, our fight is tomorrow."

She took a big gulp of water letting out a loud exhale. "I-I'm freaking out... I know we've gone over the plan, but don't you think you're putting a little bit too much faith in me. It's Yajima and Asteria we're talking about. I just don't want to disappoint you."

Justin grabbed his partner by the shoulders. His grip was tight and firm. "Don't talk like that! I know you're nervous and I know you're scared, but I believe we can win. If the worst comes to worst and we get an open field as our fighting stage I'm going to have to rely on you to win. My Osia is useless against Yajima and Asteria. I know you believe that you're not strong enough to win but you have more power than both Yajima and Asteria combined. You are our win condition. If we get an open field I will only drag you down."

These words resonated with Wendy. She still didn't know what to think. She didn't know why Justin had so much faith in her. She bit down on the bottom of her lip and toughed out a weak smile. "That only makes me more nervous."

Justin let out a soft laugh. He could tell how nervous Wendy was, and he didn't really know how to lighten the mood. He wasn't really too well versed in doing things of the such. However he did eventually come up with something that would hopefully calm down her nerves or at the very least put her at ease. "Oh yeah? What's something that'll make you less nervous then."

Wendy looked away from Justin crossing her arms. She thought that she must've been crazy to suggest what she wanted, but the idea did really appeal to her. She played with the idea in her head just imagining what Justin and her would do if they won. She clenched her sweaty palms and looked him in the eye. "If we win... If we win y-you have to give me... you have to give me a kiss!" There was a wide blush that spread across wendy cheek to cheek.

At first Justin was taken back by this statement. He was slightly confused but it made sense to him as if it was instincts he sort of just went along with it. "Sure no problem!"

* * *

The bright sun shone over the Vital Tournament's arena. Crowds had flooded in to see the matches that were to take place. Standing on the field was Wendy, Justin, Asteria and Yajima. Each one of their expressions were intense. It was clear that things were starting to boil down to who would become the true victor of the Vital Tournament. It had been decided that the field would take place on an abandoned city stage.

Looking at the battlefield there were many tall mock buildings a large maze of alleyways and many tight corners to fight. In the middle of the stage was a dried up fountain and a flat area that was clearly the main area for combatants fight. Wendy saw this as an advantage cause of Justin's ricochet style of combat and just how much it needed a tight space to be effective. However Justin knew that this was also heavily in Asteria and Yajima's favour since this type of battlefield was where Yajima grew up. Justin knew that Yajima would've prepared his team to deal with any form of battlefield due to his pure and utter determination to win.

The referee looked at both sides and put a bright smile on his face. "This is the start of quarter finals! Are all combatants ready?"

Everyone gave the thumbs up to get started. Everyone's classmates watched carefully deciding on what the outcome might be. Maria, Markus, Aiden, Fritz and Coraline who were watching the fight together all had their money on Yajima and Asteria. Winston was sat in a private viewing area with Lorenzo and Henri.

"Tell me boy, do you know them? You look concerned." Lorenzo said.

Winston took in a deep breath. "They're just my classmates. Wendy and Justin are my friends. I'd hate to see them get hurt, but I guess that's just the way of battling. If Justin is going to give me false lies about my skill then I guess he does deserve to feel a little pain."

Henri smiled at Winston's response. She liked that those bruiting dark words coming out of his mouth. Although in the end she minded her own business as she carefully pointed her eyes towards the battlefield. She knew quite well who Yajima was she had dealt with him in the past. She knew him as an easy target, someone who could be manipulated quite easily to her standards at least. He might've seemed skilled but in a tight fighting space his fighting style was quite linear.

On the battlefield Wendy tightened her stance. From where she stood she couldn't even see Yajima or Asteria the tall buildings blocked her view. She looked at Justin who had the same nervous expression that she had. When the horn sound was released into the stadium they both knew the fight had started.

Wendy and Justin quickly made their way into the maze of hallways and alleyways. The buildings were so tall that the alleyways were surrounded by darkness, and Justin had to use the occasional bit of flame to illuminate the way.

"This is a tight area, we've never seen Yajima or Asteria fight in a stadium like this. Yajima is a close quarters combat expert so running into him without intention is going to be bad. However being able to catch Asteria off guard would be very good since she's a ranged support fighter." Justin thought to himself.

"JUSTIN! LOOK OUT!" Wendy yelled.

Justin quickly turned around to see a massive fireball headed his way. He quickly stood in front of Wendy dissipating the fire blast. Standing there was Asteria who had a nervous look in her face. "Wendy I'll go after her you keep an eye out for Yajima. We can't stay grouped up like this or else she will destroy us."

Justin ran towards Asteria at full speed, but she quickly ran into one of the alleyways. Justin was hot on her trail, but with the quick twists and turns she made it was hard to track her down. Each time a corner would come she quickly ran around it, and Justin would follow. However with each corner she ran around the few glimpses he got of her would disappear to eventually him getting lost in the maze of alleyways.

Wendy was left there to fend for herself. She formed a blade and began to walk around the area. Her ears could only pick up the excited screams of Asteria's voice. When she looked around the corner she saw Asteria dash by and as if a ghost had appeared behind her she felt a sharp shiver run up her spine.

"Hey there Blotches!" Yajima yelled.

Wendy turned around around and saw Yajima running straight at her. His fists were glowing with red hot flames. The only thing she could was put up her arms to attempt to block. Yajima struck her wrist then her stomach pivoting on one foot to land a powerful kick to her side. The wind was knocked out of her and she could feel just how heavy Yajima's attacks were. Each one had the force of sledge hammer, and each blow sounded like a gun shot. Wendy leaped back landing on her hand and felt her back press up against a cold concrete wall.

Yajima slowly walked towards her. His eyes were glowing red and his whole body gave off an intimidating aura. Small sparks of flame were being released from his body. "I really wanted to go up Sparkles, but I guess you'll do." He menacingly said.

Wendy felt a chilling intense fear in her chest. Her hands were shaking and the hairs on her neck stood up tall. She pressed herself against the wall behind her hoping for anything. She wanted out she didn't know what to do. Her body was completely frozen in fear.

Yajima charged in once again fists covered in fire. Wendy quickly ducked but was met with a knee to the face. The impact made her ears ring, she felt Yajima grab her by her hair and tossed her along the ground. Her body was a rag doll to Yajima's assault. Just when Wendy thought she had stopped rolling there was a powerful impact that stung with immense pain her stomach. Yajima had leaped up into the air and drop kicked her stomach.

Yajima was walking circles around Wendy as she lay there gasping for air. She bit her lower lip and winced from the pain. She clenched the ground gripping the dirt between her fingers. She took in a deep breath and slowly stood up. She struggled to get up but she eventually got up. There was a nervous glint in her eye as she stared down Yajima.

"Hm? You're not finished. I was holding back on you because I know how frail you are, but if you want a serious fight then I'll give one to you!" Yajima yelled. He charged at Wendy he quickly threw out a punch.

As his fist flew towards Wendy's head what happened next was something he didn't expect. Wendy moved her head slightly to the right, she grabbed Yajima by the elbow and with all of her might formed a fist and punched him right in the gut. She kept her fist planted there pushing deeper into Yajima's stomach.

"I'm going to win. Don't you even for a second think you have the upper hand on me." She pressed her fist further into Yajima. There was still an undeniable amount of fear in her eyes but there was a determination that even made Yajima surprised.

Yajima jumped back and used the walls to his advantage. He leaped back and forth between them using them for different angles of attacks. He struck Wendy on the shoulder, and soon attacked the back of her knee with a quick low sweep. Wendy fell to the ground but soon leaped back looking at Yajima, he had become a ball of fire. She placed both hands together and a bright white light formed.

"Nope! I'm not going to allow you to form that weapon! Overheat!" A wave of flames erupted from his body spreading through the city engulfing multiple buildings. When the attack hit Wendy she was knocked down to the ground.

Wendy's hands were scorched and badly burned the pain was indescribable. Tears welled up in her eyes as she clenched her fists. She quickly looked back up and saw Yajima headed right towards her. She rolled out of the way but his impact on the ground cracked and sent a shockwave which picked her up. Yajima ran and jumped into the air quickly hitting Wendy back down.

"I don't want to hurt you any further. You might as well give up now." Yajima said.

Wendy was gasping for air. Her hands were burned and her whole body already ached from this fight, but she had to win. She knew what was on the line, and it was more than a simple kiss. Wining this match would allow Justin to go to Tsu, he needed to see his family, and she would do anything to help him. She struggled against the weight of her own body, her nose and mouth were bleeding and her limbs had gone numb. She could taste the blood filling her mouth. When she was up on two feet she put both of her hands up directly challenging Yajima. "Will win no matter what!"

"Ok then Wendy! Show me that determination of yours!"

Wendy formed both blades in her hands. Each one was the size of a katana and the formation was incredibly fast, much faster than what she had done during her time in school. She ran at Yajima her eyes were wide open and the only thing she could see was her defeating Yajima. She quickly slashed at him with each swing missing, but her timing was getting tighter, and eventually a few strikes did land on Yajima's clothing.

She threw one of the swords at the ground and it bounced up in the air. She formed a few more blades and started bouncing them around the walls of the alleyway. In her hands she formed small daggers and threw them all directly at Yajima.

"Crap!" Yajima jumped back he saw all the blades closing in. He had already used overheat, the move was on cooldown, and even so if he forced it out the heat wouldn't be enough to destroy the blades. He was running out of time as the blades flew closer and closer, he knew if he didn't do something now this would be it for him. He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, he felt an immense amount of pressure build up within his body. Clenching both of his fists his body erupted into a pillar of flames sending out a blast destroying everything around him buildings and all. The force of the explosion was enough to flatten the whole battlefield. And the whole field was covered in a layer of smoke. The crowds eyes all shot up towards the monitor.

The referee put up his flag. "Justin and Asteria have been eliminated due to out of bounds!"

Justin had been flung up against the wall of the stadium and so had Asteria, they were both wincing in pain but Asteria felt extremely frustrated. "Yajima you knuckle head! Think before you activate your Osia, that blast knocked me out of the ring!"

As the smoke cleared the scene revealed to be Wendy running at Yajima with two swords in her hands. She was getting good hits in on Yajima, but Yajima was also landing his blows. Yajima was still a pillar of flames, but Wendy was able to keep up by dodging, however she was still getting hit and was taking damage. The surface of her skin was also badly burnt as the heat radiating out of Yajima was so immense that the rock he stepped on quickly turned to lava.

Wendy leaped back, she was completely out of breath and she could barely think with just how much pain she was in. Yajima was in the same state as her though, that last exchange he was covered in many cuts and after the explosion he made Wendy managed to throw a sword right into his shoulder. Both of them were on their knees, and both of them struggled to get up.

"Wendy, you're good. My energy is running thin thanks to you, those blades pack a punch. But forming them that fast must be exhausting you look close to passing out." Yajima muttered before falling back down catching himself with his knee.

Wendy smiled through the pain. "Heh... I'm going to have to use it aren't I. Yajima, what I'm about to do is what I was planning for my rematch against Eren, but you've left me no choice I'm going to have to use it."

Yajima was out of breath and he could feel his Osia draining away from him. It was dying down and he wasn't sure just how much longer he could hold it. He had put everything into activating it and the brawl with Wendy in the smoke had completely drained him. Each cut also stung which chipped away at his stamina even more. "Yeah? And what would that be?"

"A Grifta Attack. I've done it before in practice, but this will be the first time of me using it in a fight." Wendy said. She knew the flaws of her Grifta Attack well, as right now it took such a long time to set up. Would Yajima give her the time, no he isn't that dumb.

"You look worried Wendy. Does it take a long time to set up? Don't worry you have my respect I'll sit here and wait for it. There's no point to winning if I don't fight my opponent at their best."

"Fine! Just don't regret it when I beat you! Thousand Blades!" Wendy's body erupted with a bright while light. She clenched her teeth and closed her fists. The energy flared up wildly almost appearing likes flames. Thousands of small white orbs circled her body each one turned into a sword slowly. Wendy could already taste the blood in her mouth and she hadn't even formed one proper sword in the attack. She bit her lower lip and pushed through the pain. Her wrists, elbows and shoulders begun to bleed from the sheer amount of energy she had to build up. The pounding in her head already made her want to give up, but she needed to fight this one through.

However through the pain the struggle Yajima was greeted to a wall of swords pointing his way. He smiled and looked Wendy in the eye. Forcing all the energy he had left in his body and then some he clenched his fists and erupted into another pillar of flames.

"This is the last stand Wendy! Are you ready!" Yajima yelled.

The two of them ran at each other. Wendy sent a few of the blades flying towards Yajima, each one was getting ripped to shreds by his heat, but as they got closer and closer some of the blades were getting through. Yajima felt the stinging pain of each one, but he had to push forward. Wendy had generated such an attack for him he had to show her the proper respect she deserved.

Wendy was running out of blades she had only about five left, and Yajima's flame pillar was running low. She summoned the five blades to her hand and formed one unison katana out of them. Yajima summoned the flames around his body to only his hand. Wendy slammed the sword down on Yajima and Yajima pushed up against the blade with his hand. The impact sent gale force winds out. The wind stirred up the debris and Wendy felt the blade breaking in her hands it took all of her energy just to hold it together. Yajima felt the bones in his right arm breaking and he used all of his might not to give in.

"Wendy I have no energy left! This fight has been incredible, but it has to end! If I have no energy left then I'll just squeeze it out of TOMORROW!" Yajima yelled. The orb in his hand expanded by a small about cracking Wendy's sword by just a bit.

Wendy planted her feet and gritted her teeth. She had no energy left, but she could was the victory ahead, she just need to hold out for a little longer. Just a little longer. She just need that one push, she could feel her blade was on the edge of shattering. She clenched both of her hands and with just the tiniest bit more strength push down on Yajima.

Yajima couldn't keep it any longer and neither could Wendy. Yajima's arm just gave out and his orb completely dissipated. Wendy pushed with all of her might. Her blade shattered but the explosion forced Yajima down. Wendy was breathing so hard as she looked up into the sky. She was drenched in sweat and her head was pounding. It was as if this was a dream the referee put up his hand and said. "The Winner is Wendy and Justin!"

* * *

Wendy slowly opened up her eyes. There was a nurse to her right, but also Yajima was sitting there. He had a sad look in his eye and she couldn't tell why. His arm was in a cast and the first thought that came to her mind was, he might've been upset about the fight. Wendy pushed herself up sitting up straight. She winced as her hands were severely burned. She watched carefully as the nurse walked out of the room. There was a hint of awkward silence between the Zorua and Infernape.

Yajima scratched the back of his head. At first he couldn't think of the words to say. He wanted to say so much to her, but she just woke up so he didn't want to overwhelm her. "Hey look so you won... but you were completely knocked out for two days. You and Justin placed well as he had to go through several two vs ones."

Wendy smiled as she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't believe it, she was having trouble getting over the fact that she beat Yajima. In that moment coming bursting through the door was her partner.

"J-Justin?" Wendy said.

"OH MY GOODNESS WENDY! You... should... have... seen the finals! It was so intense, Eren's absolute mastery over his conduit was nothing short of impressive, but his opponents Henriette and Liliana were so cool too! Liliana made a nine tailed fox out of pure psychic energy! She went on all fours and fired off massive orbs of homing psychic energy! Who knew despite the type disadvantage they could generate enough heat to damage Eren and Xavier! Some how Eren was able to pull away the energy from them with his conduit and turn the tides!" Justin was slightly out of breath whilst showing Wendy his drawings of what happened. "Well anyway I'll see you later today, I'm going to be hanging out with Maria, Coraline, Asteria, Liliana and I don't know I'll see what other sweet ladies I can find."

"W-wait what about my rew—?" Wendy wasn't able to say what she wanted to say as Justin had already left the room. She took in a deep breath and began to move her arms stretching them. There was a small amount of pain but it was more bearable.

Yajima scratched the back of his head. "So... Wendy, do you need help?"

Wendy smiled. "Uh sure." As Yajima held her hand in getting out of the bed it had finally come across her mind that the young Infernape was calling her by her name and not that silly nickname he came up with. "I just noticed this... but you're calling me by my actual name."

It was as if Yajima was caught on his own tongue as he stayed quiet for a few seconds. Then soon smirked. "I mean if you want me to call you Blotches or Short Stack I can."

"Huh!? Yajima you're mean!" Wendy said. She pulled her hand out of Yajima's hand and got out of the bed herself. Her legs were a little shaky, and she was a little nervous taking the first step.

Yajima grabbed her arm and slung it over his neck. "Here my arm is broken so I'm just going to support you with this arm instead alright. Now come on, we've got a Moonlight Ball to prepare for Blotches."

"Call me Blotches one more time and I'm shoving you down a flight of stairs." Wendy pouted.

"Ok Short Stack," Yajima laughed.

* * *

Wendy was preparing for the Moonlight Ball, she had already gone through the usual and that was take a shower and do some basic hygiene. However for a dress she chose something quite special, she was really hoping to receive her reward from Justin tonight, maybe a cute dress might catch his attention. She looked in the mirror and couldn't help but blush at what she was wearing knowing that it was by far her favourite formal wear.

She wore a tight fitting red top where the sides were red but the middle was a dark grey. Where the grey and red met it was lined with frills. Her shoulders were completely exposed and the dress had a red lip that folded over her chest. In her hair was a red rose pin, and her skirt fell down to the middle of her thighs. She wore tight fitting black pants and for shoes she wore red flats that had ribbons around the ankles.

"Awwww look at my niece! You look so cute!" Steven said.

Wendy turned her head looking at her uncle. "I really hope Justin likes it.

"I'm sure he will."

* * *

Everyone had gathered in the school gymnasium for the Moonlight Ball. Everyone had dressed up for the occasion each of the guys had a suit in a different style and the girls had dresses that really seemed to suit them. Even Mr Alan had dressed up and his hair was tied back into a neatly done ball. The roof of the gym had been opened up to allow the rays of the full moon to illuminate room. Small sparkled specs glittered in the moonlight same with the food on the side.

Of course not everyone attended, but a majority of the class was there. It was quite a scene to see Wendy desperately trying to get Justin to dance with her, and it was really cute seeing Markus trying to properly dace with Maria.

Justin who was too embarrassed to admit that he couldn't dance tried to play it off. "Wendy, I'm not really the dancing type you know. How about you go and dance with uh... Yaji... Aiden!"

Wendy gave off a bright smile. "Aww don't be silly dumb dumb. It's ok you taught me how to fight so I'll teach you how to dance. See look it's simple it's just 1.. 2... OUCH!"

"Sorry!" Justin meekly said.

As the night progressed Yajima was sat by the punch bowl he looked at the dance floor and couldn't help but feel a little bit of jealousy watching Asteria dance with Aiden. Despite the slight hint of jealousy it was overwhelmed with pride for her, and he was proud that she found someone she really connected with. In fact he could tell from the moment that he partnered up with her that he wasn't her type. Either way he still considered her to be a very good friend of his and if Aiden ever hurt her he'd give that stupid Scissor a piece of his mind.

Maria had found comfort in dancing with Markus and the two of them did occasionally switch partners on the dance floor to share the time with everyone. In fact Justin finally did eventually end up dancing with Maria, and the nervous look on his face was priceless.

Back at the punch bowl Wendy eventually made her way beside Yajima. "Wow I am exhausted. Why aren't you dancing? You're from Tsu shouldn't this be your thing?"

Yajima smiled. "Maybe it is. I'm not sure I've never tried."

Wendy soon looked at Yajima's cast. "I'm really sorry about your arm."

There was a soft giggle that left the young Infernape's lips. "Nah don't worry about it. This was my own fault I pushed myself way beyond my limit during that fight. You have my respect Wendy. So I hear Justin is moving to Tsu after this. Eren is going back to Aether, and I'm staying here. What are you going to do?"

"Wait for all my friends. While I'm waiting I'm going to keep at it and become a pro battler." Wendy said.

Yajima smiled. "Alright how about this, once my arm heals up we're having a rematch! One on One!"

Wendy smiled back. "You got it!"

As Wendy and Yajima stood there smiling at each other Coraline had oddly come up to them. She was wearing a pretty black dress. "Uhm... Yajima, Wendy have you two seen Winston? He's not here, he's not one to break a promise. He said he'd be here."

Wendy looked around and even took a quick whiff of the air around her. "You're right Winston isn't here. Have you tried calling him?"

"Yes! Like at least 15 times! It only goes to voice mail! He's been acting weird ever since his loss in the Vital Tournament. I just hope he can make it, he and I were supposed to dance together. Just let me know if you guys see him alright." Coraline said.

"Yup will do!" Wendy said.

In a small fighting ring in the shape of a small octagon lay an Incineroar Pokemorph. The light above was swinging back and forth. The young man laying on the floor was in excruciating pain, his skin had become rotten in just a few seconds and his eyes felt as if they were on fire. Lorenzo watched with a massive grin on his face, Henri watched and smiled at her new partner, and Christina watched in horror. She watched in horror as her brother stood proudly above a man with bright purple poison dripping from his hand.

Winston wasn't proud of what he had done, and truthfully he felt bad for the person he just defeated. He wiped the blood off of his cheek and let the poison from his hand drip onto the floor. He gave a quick look at Lorenzo and looked back at his opponent. He looked right back at Lorenzo.

There was a cold dead stare in Winston's eyes. With a bit of spite, guilt and anger he looked his new sponsor in the eyes and said.

"So... when's my next fight?"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** There we go Ladies and Gentlemen! That is the last chapter of Troubled Days: Bronze! Oh boy was that a journey! I never expected for this story to come this far if I am completely being honest!

How this story came to be I was literally sitting in class and thought of this half assed idea then thought to myself "wouldn't it be funny to make this a SYOC." Turns out this story has such an awesome reader base and I thank you all so much for sticking with me and this story! It really means a lot to me and this is great as this is my first completed story on this account!

I know I didn't include a ton of the characters that were introduced and the main reason for that is I couldn't really see myself writing for them, or I couldn't take them to a place that seemed interesting to me. So I am deeply sorry that I didn't include all the characters, after all when I was originally accepting character I thought of this story as a joke. However by the end this has been by far the most fun and most miserable writing experience I have ever had. The journey to get here was awesome and I think all of you reading submitting and reviewing the story.

So now we get to the part where I ask for things like! What did you guys think of the story as a whole cause oh boy were there some forgotten plot points! Also no seriously though what did you guys think good bad terrible amazing? Who knows! What did you think of the last chapter was it a good send off! I'm really excited to see what you guys say!

Anyway it has been a pleasure as FireFoxDriver to write this story for all of you! See you guys in Troubled Days: Silver!


	22. Chapter 22

Hey guys Firefoxdriver here! I just wanted to update you guys on this story! There is another story that happens between this one and Silver. I really encourage you to read Troubled Days Shield as you'll probably need to read it to understand Silver. As I do plan on bringing a good amount of the characters from TB: Shield into TB: Silver.

So make sure you guys check it out!


	23. Phat Update

Hey guys this is Firefoxdriver. I just wanted to say this in advance. That there is going to be a huge update for both Troubled Days Shield and Bronze. I am going to be revising them while going through all my notes and reading both of them while entertaining there are a ton of problems in the both of them. There are some pacing issues and planning issues and unused OCs that never saw the light of day and some OCs that honesty shouldn't see the light of day that were kinda just swept under the rug cause I didn't know what the fuck to do with them.

So in these turn of recent events I am going to be rewriting Bronze as it's own story with only the OCs that I enjoyed writing for and who I think actually worked well with the story. Of course I'm going to be scrapping a lot of the unnecessary OCs, but it's to make a more coherent story in the end.

Also sorry for not updating in a long amount of time lol, but I will do my best to update regularly from now on.


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